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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 1 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

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COLOSSAL HEAD AT IZAMAL. 









CORTES: 



OR THE 



DISCOVERY, CONQUEST AND MORE 
RECENT HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



EDITED BY 

FRED H. ALLEN, 



J3-SJ 9/ 



-*»*- 






\ 



BOSTON: 
D. LOTHROP & COMPANY 

FRANKLIN STREET. 






, J! 



Copyright, 1881, 
By D. Lothrop & Company. 



INTRODUCTION. 



IN presenting to the public this series of Biographies of 
Great Adventurers, the publishers design to furnish a con- 
cise and accurate account of great events, as related to 
individual lives. 

A high moral and religious sentiment is usually connected 
with the grandest achievements of men and their greatest 
gifts to " the world. History is but an aggregation of 
incomplete biographies — ■ and can never be understood 
apart from the principles moving the chief actors. This 
is the reason for the present publications. We feel assured 
that they will supply a long-felt need in our Sunday- 
school and Home Libraries. 

F. H. A. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 









Page. 


Colossal Head at Izanial Front. 


Fernando Cortes ....... .28 


View in the Isle of Cuba 






49 


Guatemalian Idol ...... 






60 


Montezuma 






74 


Ancient Building at Yucatan 






89 


Pyramid of Cholnla ...... 






131 


View of Mexico ...... 






147 


A Mexican Temple 






157 


Mexican Costumes 






203 


The Virgin of Guadaloupe .... 






214 


Benito Juarez 






254 


Matais Romerio 






254 


The Emperor Maximilian 






261 


The Empress Carlot.ta .... 






201 


The City of Queretaro .... 






. 2S1 


The Execution of Maximilian 






287 



CONTENTS, 

Page. 
CHAPTER I. 

Introductory 7 

CHAPTER II. 
Birth — Education 29 

CHAPTER IH. 
Position of Mexico 37 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Expedition sails 51 

CHAPTER V. 

Embassy from Montezuma with Presents for Cortes . 79 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Start for Mexico 105 

CHAPTER VII. 
Cholula, the Sacred City 130 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Cortes enters the City — The Great Temple . . 152 

ix 



x Cotitents. 

Page. 

CHAPTER IX. 
Death of Montezuma 172 

CHAPTER X. 
Cortes at Tlascala 182 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Siege of Mexico — Subjugation of the Country . 189 

SKETCH OF THE MORE RECENT HISTORY. 

CHAPTER I. 
Rome's Opportunity and Failure 205 

CHAPTER II. 
Spanish Rule and Political Romanism .... 215 

CHAPTER III. 
The Great Awakening 236 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Struggles for Freedom ...... 249 

CHAPTER V. 
Victory and New Life • 279 



CORTES, 

Or, The Discovery And Conquest of Mexico. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY — PROGRESS OF WESTERN DIS- 
COVERY AFTER COLUMBUS — DESCRIPTION OF 
MEXICO. 

TT is a remarkable fact, that North America, 
■*■ the region in which the Anglo-Saxon race has 
moss clearly developed its character and won 
some of its chief glories, both in enterprise, leg- 
islation, and religion, was first discovered under 
British auspices. To John Cabot, a Venetian, 
but residing in England, where (at Bristol) his 



8 COBTES. 

son Sebastian was born, a license for a voyage 
of discovery was granted in 1497 by Henry VIL 
Sebastian was old enough to accompany his 
father. After passing the southern cape of Ire- 
land, they sailed directly to the west; and on 
the 24th of June arrived at the large island 
which forms, as it were, a vast natural break- 
water between the waves of the Atlantic and the 
waters of the great northern system of American 
lakes, flowing down the river into the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence. To the English it was indeed what 
the name given to it imported, and which it has 
ever since retained, New-found-land. It now 
constitutes one of the most important portions 
of the western empire of the British Crown. 

The Cabots pursued their researches South- 
ward, and were the earliest discoverers of the 
mainland of America, the coast line of which 
they traced as far as Florida. They returned 
to England with a valuable cargo, and brought 
with them several of the Datives of the lands 
they had visited. Years elapsed, however, be- 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 9 

fore colonization began to fix a new race in 
the territories of the uncivilized Indians, who 
chiefly lived by hunting, and among whom no 
elements of social improvement were found. 
The pilgrim fathers and the Quakers took with 
them the principles of British religion, liberty, 
and law; and the history of their descendants, 
especially when contrasted with that of the col- 
onies founded in Mexico and South America by 
the Spaniards and Portuguese, most instructively 
illustrates the character of the Divine adminis- 
tration, and establishes the fact that social pros- 
perity can only be produced by the practical 
acknowledgment of the supremacy of Divine 
truth ; and that the extent of its existence will 
always be in exact proportion to the extent to 
which that truth is allowed to prevail. 

In modern times, after brief agitation and 
contest, the English colonies secured their inde- 
pendence ; and the United States at once took 
their place among the nations of Christendom, 
with settled and liberal institutions, affording 



10 CORTES. 

to their people advantages, of which they have 
fully availed themselves, for the secure enjoy- 
ment of all the blessings of society, and the 
rapid promotion of social advancement. More 
than half a century has elapsed since the Spanish 
colonies asserted their independence of the parent 
state. And this was the test of the value to so- 
ciety, of the principles which during three hun- 
dred years of dominion, their rulers had estab- 
lished. And what was the result ? As it was 
with the Spaniards at home, so it was with the 
Spanish colonists in America, Potent to destroy 
they were unable to reconstruct ; and the de- 
plorable condition both of Old Spain and Xew 
in demonstrates, with melancholy certainty, 
the anti-social character of the religious domina- 
tion to which they had submitted both their in- 
dividual, their domestic, and their political life. 
Identity of cause is proved by identity of effect. 

f v 3 by iii»- Spaniards, however, that what 
iji.i termed West Indian research was most 

industrious!] prosecuted; and these i hes 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 



11 



opened the way for the establishment of those 
maoiiificent, wealthy, and almost imperial de- 

pendencies of the Spanish crown, the vice- 
royalties of Mexico and Peru. The mistaken 
notions of Columbus respecting the proximity 
of Asia to the islands which he had discovered, 
had never been removed from his mind. He be- 
lieved to the last, that the great sea to the south, 
of which, in his later voyages he heard so many 
vague rumors, was the Indian Ocean ; and that 
somewhere along the coasts which he had been 
enabled only so imperfectly to trace, there must 
be a strait by which the Caribbean Sea would 
be connected with it. The discovery of this sup- 
posed strait, was one of the objects of that spirit 
of adventure which he had excited in Spain ; 
while that chivalrous temper, so congenial to the 
Spanish character, and which the Moorish cam- 
paign had revived, but which it had not been 
sufficient to exhaust, prompted many who were 
left without employment at the close of the 
war, and whose warlike restlessness was utterly 



12 CORTES. 

unsuited to a state of peace and of increasing 
legal order, to seek beyond the ocean for a field 
in which it might be exercised. 

The existence of this temper demands partic- 
ular notice. It would scarcely be possible with- 
out it to understand the narratives of the subju- 
gation of Mexico and Peru. Deeds of individual 
daring and prowess were produced by this dispo- 
sition, which remind the reader of the fabulous 
periods of both ancient and modern history — of 
Hercules and Theseus, and of Amadis de Gaul 
and the Paladins of Charlemagne ; of the epics of 
Homer and Tasso. We are not to conceive of 
the character of these knightly adventurers from 
the ideas furnished by the gentlemen travellers or 
commercial speculators of our own day. They 
more closely resembled the knights-errant of 
romantic fiction. Clad in steel, hardy and fear- 
. adding to personal courage the skill of a 
scientific military discipline, seated on those 
•.( itul war-horses which as much terrified the 
Indians as the elephants of Pyrrhus did the 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 13 

Romans, when first employed against them, and 
possessing, especially in addition to sword and 
lance, those newly-invented engines of destruc- 
tion, which made them appear, to their untutored 
and superstitious opponents, as the children of 
the sky, wielding the thunder and lightning of 
their dreaded deities; thus prepared to act, and 
resolutely bent on a continually advancing move- 
ment, patient under toil, their courage stimulated 
by opposition, rising to the height of the difficul- 
ties they found in their way, instead of being 
intimidated by them, and eagerly, and yet stead- 
ily, marching on to surmount the most tremen- 
dous barriers, which threatened to render their 
progress impossible, and, like the great com- 
mander of old, reckoning nothing done while 
anything remained to be done, it is a matter of 
admiration, but not of surprise, that, in the ex- 
pressive phraseologjr of Scripture, they went on- 
ward " conquering and to conquer." 

But with all this romantic heroism, their char- 
acter was often shadowed by the darkest evils. 



14 CORTES. 

Capable of vast conceptions, and employing 
means to realize them equally skilful and daring, 
of moral excellence they furnished no examples, 
of Christian virtue no traces, unless in that im- 
passioned, bigoted spirit of proselytism which 
they termed " zeal." However the evils of their 
nature might be restrained where restraint seemed 
necessary for success, they not only existed, but 
were the master-principles which stimulated their 
cause. Zealous in religion, vet a religion which 
might have had its origin with the infernal 
enemies of God and man, characterized as it 
chiefly was by falsehood and cruelty. The}- were 
insatiably avaricious, and utterly unscrupulous 
in the means they employed to gratify their 
"accursed thirst for gold." We may not speak 
of the feebleness of moral principle, but of its 
total absence. The superiority of European in- 
telligence 1 , they exhibited only as a cunning, more 
tile in expedients than that which the semi- 
rilized barbarian tribes whom they subdued 
They waded to empire through blood, 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 15 

and their religion was only less cruel than the 
sanguinary superstitions of Mexico. Their faith 
was merely the belief of the verbal expression of 
the religious dogmas taught them by the vassals 
of the Roman hierarchy, and their worship the 
outward observance of the ritual which Rome had 
invented and imposed ; and of conversion they 
had no other notion than that of a verbal recep- 
tion of their creed, connected with submission to 
baptism. They regarded the unbelieving idolaters 
as holding possessions of which they might law- 
fully be deprived by the professors of the true 
faith ; and they saw no inconsistency between 
their usual course of rapine and slaughter, and 
those brief pauses from a violence — to which they 
immediately returned — which were necessaiy for 
the performance of some religious ceremony. 
Such was their religion, that it took its place 
among the other elements of their character, and 
occasioned no appearance of incongruity. Ruth- 
less and treacherous murders perpetrated by 
wholesale, were preluded by the stage-glitter of 



16 CORTES. 

the mass. With the mass their campaigns were 
interspersed, with the mass their triumphs were 
celebrated. 

It is a fearful truth, illustrated and demon- 
strated by the whole history of these Spanish 
adventurers, that when Christianity is deprived 
of its spiritual life, and reduced to a merely 
verbal profession and external system, it loses all 
its power of moral influence and resistance ; and 
as the human body, when life departs, comes at 
once under the law of chemical agency, and 
passes into decomposition and decay, so the life- 
less body of Christianity becomes powerless for 
resisting temptation, and capable of combining 
with the worst elements of human corruption, 
a lid even of supplying a poison, inoculation with 
which is death. These are dark pages of human 
history, replete with crime and chronicled in 
blood ; but truth and wisdom, however, demand 
that they be not passed over, but be made to fur- 
Dish the instruction which they involve. Against 
these fatal and ruinous errors the living Church 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 17 

ought in all ages to protest, and against the 
slightest tendency to admit them most carefully 
to guard. The evils of a dead Christianity are 
scarcely less numerous than the blessings pro- 
duced by its living power. How " perilous" 
were such "times," was never more loudly de- 
clared than by the proceedings of these chivalrous 
soldiers of the Spanish Inquisition, whose heroism 
was as the boldness of demons. Let s} r stems 
be compared in their results. "By their fruits 
shall ye know them." Long before the Pilgrim 
Fathers began to struggle Avith their fearful dif- 
ficulties in New England, sustained only by their 
trust in their Saviour-God, Mexico and Peru 
were brilliant gems in the imperial diadem of 
Spain. What are they now ? What is Spain 
itself? 

Before any particular description of Mexico 
can be even attempted, attention must be paid 
to one of the leading facts of physical geography, 
and to that wise and beneficent law which is 



18 CORTES. 

connected with it in the constitution of nature. 
Every one knows that the surface of the earth is 
not a level plain, but that there are great inequal- 
ities of hill and dale ; inequalities which are 
trivial as the roughnesses on the peel of the 
orange when compared with the entire magni- 
tude of the globe, but large, sometimes stupend- 
ously so, when viewed in relation to the strength 
and stature of man. Some of the peaks of the 
vast range of the Himalaya Mountains, in the 
northern portion of India, rise to the height of 
twenty-seven thousand feet above the level of 
the ocean, and are supposed to be the loftiest in 
the world. 

Now, in relation to this fact, there exists a 
remarkable law, which is most beneficial in its 
operation. Every one knows that sensible heat, 
the heat that man feels, is always in proportion 
to the elevation of the sun above the horizon at 
noon. In winter, when it is lowest, the weather 
ba colder : in summer, when highest, hotter. If, 
bj travelling southward, the sun's elevation is 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 19 

increased, the weather becomes warmer ; till, at 
the equator, where twice a year the sun is verti- 
cal, directly over head it is hottest of all. The 
geographical rule is, that the temperature of the 
climate is always in proportion to the distance 
from the equator north or south ; the extreme 
of heat being at the equator, and of cold at the 
north and south poles which are at the greatest 
distance from it. 

Now there is another rule — we might almost 
call it a wonderful one, but so are all the works 
of God. It might be thought that the higher we 
went the hotter we should be. But it is not so. 
A comparatively small distance in elevation, tak- 
ing the level of the ocean as the point of depart- 
ure for our measurement is equivalent to a great 
distance on level ground from the equator. Take 
for instance, the very lofty mountain-range in the 
north of India. At the foot and for a little dis- 
tance upwards, there are the usual vegetable pro- 
ductions of the tropics ; as we continue to ascend 
the average temperature is cooler and the vege- 



20 CORTES. 

tation of more temperate climates succeeds, just 
as it does for instance, in proceeding northwards 
from the equator ; till ascending higher we 
come at length to colder regions, and then to 
where there is perpetual winter, to the reign of 
ice and snow. The river Ganges, which pours 
its unfailing streams through the whole length 
of tropical India, rises high up the Himalayas 
where the ground is always covered with snow, 
flowing out of a cavern of perpetual frost. The 
river may thus be said to be fed by the melting 
snows of a tropical region, whose actual tempera- 
ture is that of the frigid zone. On the acclivities 
of such mountains, therefore, all the varieties 
of the temperature of the earth's level surface 
may be found, from that of the equator through 
those of the temperate climates to that of the 
poles. 

From this general law, we turn to that partic- 
ular application of it which is furnished by the 
mountains of America. With a, slight interrup- 
tion, there is a continuous range of mountains 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 21 

from the southernmost point of South America 
to the commencement of the Isthmus of Darien. 
This range — the Andes — throughout its whole 
length keeps close to the western shore of the 
continent; in some parts the base reaches to 
the very coast, never receding many miles 
from it. This range enters the isthmus, which 
in its narrowest part for a considerable length 
it occupies. Where the isthmus opens out again 
it comes nearer to the eastern coast on the Gulf 
of Mexico. It then pursues its course to the 
north, keeping nearer the western shore. It is 
here generally known now under the name of the 
Rocky Mountains, the western base of which, 
as in the neighborhood of the Columbia River, 
comes close to the Pacific. 

If the map of the two continents be examined, 
it will be seen that the isthmus widens so as 
almost to suggest to the fancy the form of a 
funnel for pouring liquids into a narrow-necked 
bottle, the spout being bent somewhat horizon- 
tally. The northern and widening portion is 



22 CORTES. 

Mexico. The conformation of the land is very 
remarkable. It is almost filled with the out- 
spreading mountain-range. On the eastern coast 
the base sometimes comes within twenty or thirty 
miles of the sea. and is seldom more than 
sixty miles distant. After a steep ascent of sev- 
eral thousand feet, large expanses of table-land 
are found — plains sometimes so surrounded by 
still higher mountains as to form vast valleys. 
Some of these mountains are volcanoes, and 
are from their immense height, visible to a great 
distance in the Gulf of Mexico. A singular 
instance of this occurred to Mr. Bullock, who 
saw from the deck of the vessel in which he 
was sailing to Vera Cruz, the summit of the 
volcano of Popocatapetl, nearly eighteen thou- 
sand feet above the level of the sea. He was 
then about a hundred and twenty miles from 
land and the mountain was many miles farther 
k in the interior. Such a combination of 
circumstances as rendered it visible to him, 
though of coui ssible can very seldom exist. 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 23 

It was in the evening, and the position of the 
vessel was such that Popoeatapetl was exactly 
in a line between the observer and the setting 
sun. The consequence was that the snowy sum- 
mit of the volcano so intercepted the beams of 
the sun as to appear like a cloudy pyramid 
from the distance, rather shadowed than dis- 
tinctly pencilled on the solar disc. 

On the western extremity of the Gulf of 
Mexico there is a plain, varying in breadth from 
thirty or forty to a hundred miles, and even more. 
The name of Tierras Calientes, " hot countries," 
is given to it. Tropical productions are found 
here ; and in some seasons, tropical diseases 
are fearfully destructive of human life. The 
acclivity of the hills rising from these plains 
is very steep. Sometimes in the space of ten 
or twenty miles, the traveller will have ascended 
five or six thousand feet. In a journey from 
Vera Cruz of six hundred miles, he finds only 
two portions of the road where for a short dis- 
tance carriages may be used. He soon discov- 



24 CORTES. 

ers that he is leaving the tropical for an increas- 
ingly temperate climate. The rocks are often al- 
most perpendicular on the side of ravines even 
terrificalh T great. Towards the summit of the 
acclivity, the weather is often "severe^ cold and 
violent tempests occasionally occur. 

But confining our description to the neighbor- 
hood of the capital : let the reader suppose that 
he is journeying to it from Vera Cruz, and that 
all the difficulties of the ascent are surmounted ; 
one of the grandest views in the world is now 
spread before him. He stands on the eastern 
summit of the elevated ground which forms the 
Vale of Tenochtitlan, as it was termed in 1530, 
now the Valley of Mexico. This vale, even at 
the height of nearly eight thousand feet above the 

-level, is surrounded by hills in some parts 

peat elevation. On the north side these only 

a few hundred feet. Towards the south 

they in«* much higher. Near the south-eastern 

.Mount [staccihuatl, nearly sixteen 

md feet above the level of the ocean, and 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 25 

always covered with snow. And more to the 
south is Popocatapetl, the highest mountain in 
Mexico, ascending to an elevation of little less 
than eighteen thousand feet. The valley itself 
is of an oblong form, extending from north to 
south about fifty-two, and from east to west 
about thirty-four miles. Its circuit is rather 
more than two hundred miles, and its area about 
one thousand seven hundred square miles. Of 
this surface, however, about one-tenth is occupied 
— at least was so at the time of the conquest 
by the Spaniards — b} r four large lakes. The 
largest of these, Tezcuco, had at that time an 
area of seventy-seven square miles. The city 
itself stood in the centre of the valley-plain ; and 
though exceedingly magnificent, was built upon 
piles in the lake, and was connected with the 
shore by strongly-constructed causeways. When 
first seen by the Spaniards it stood in all its 
glory like another Venice, only rising from a 
mountain-lake instead of from the ocean it- 
self. 



26 CORTES. 

Here, while Columbus was opening the way 
to the western world, the predecessors of Mon- 
tezuma, the despotic emperors of Mexico, were 
reigning in barbaric splendor. 



CHAPTER II. 

BIRTH — EDUCATION — SAILS FOR HISPANIOLA — 
SECRETARY TO VELASQUEZ — IMPRISONMENT 
— RELEASE AND MARRIAGE. 

"T7ERNAND0 CORTES was born at Me- 
•*■ dellin, a town in Estremadura in Spain, 
a. d, 1485. He sprang from a respectable fam- 
ily. His father was a captain of infantry in 
moderate circumstances. He designed his son 
for the profession of the law, and sent him 
to the University of Salamanca to prosecute the 
requisite preparatory studies. But though his 
natural abilities were good, he could neither 
be persuaded to repress the buoyancy of his 

spirits, or to stimulate his loitering indolence. 

29 



36 CORTES. 

With the classics as then known, he became 
tolerably well acquainted ; but his time was 
mostly spent in reference to no particular ob- 
ject, and he persisted in the resolution that he 
had early formed, to win his bread by the 
sword rather than the pen. His parents see- 
ing his love of activity and adventure, at length 
withdrew their objections. At first he thought 
of proceeding to the Spanish army engaged 
in the Italian wars under Gonzalvo de Cordova, 
the " Great Captain/' as he was then termed ; 
but the New World had been only recently 
revealed, presenting the attractions so power- 
ful to the Spanish mind in that age, of mys- 
tery, glory and wealth. All these were beheld 
from a distance ; and the hardships and dan 
gers connected with them were ignorantly or 
wilfully unperceived. It was a splendid lottery; 
and the eager spirits of the day looked only 
at the possible prizes, and refused to take into 
the account the certain blanks. We have the 
testimony of Shakspeare, who, though he wrote 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 31 

some years later, referred to the customs of an 
earlier period, when such enterprises were re- 
garded as among the courses of life which 
young men would choose for themselves, or to 
which they would be directed by their fathers. 

" While other men of slender reputation, 
Put forth their sons to seek preferment out : 
Some to the wars, to try there for ttcne there ; 
Some to discover islands far away ; 
Some to the studious universities," &c, &c. 

A voyage westward was the choice of young 
Cortes ; and he was only prevented from sail- 
ing in 1502, when he was but seventeen years 
of age with Nicholas de Ovando, by a serious 
accident, in consequence of which he was con- 
fined to his bed till after the departure of the 
fleet. He continued in Spain two years longer 
with no alteration in his habits of mingled 
activity and indolence. At length in 1504, he 
sailed for Hispaniola, where Ovando was gov- 
ernor ; and although the voyage was stormy 
and dangerous, he reached the island in safety. 



32 COKTES. 

The governor was absent when he landed ; 
but the secretary received him kindly and told 
him that he might easily obtain a liberal grant 
of land. The reply of Cortes bespeaks his 
disposition : " I came to get gold, not to till 
the soil like a peasant." His objections how- 
ever, were removed by Ovando, and for several 
years he was engaged as a colonial settler ; 
varying his agricultural pursuits by joining 
several military expeditions commanded by 
Diego Velasquez, designed to repress those in- 
surrections of the natives into which they were 
frequently driven by the oppressions of their 
new lords. He thus became acquainted with 
the wild tactics of Indian warfare, and kept 
fully alive all that was daring and chivalrous 
in his character. 

In 1511 Velasquez undertook the full estab- 
lishment of Spanish rule in Cuba ; and Cortes 
gladly embraced the opportunity of exchanging 
a manner of life for which the disposition 
which he cherished altogether unfitted him ; for 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 33 

one to which he could fully devote himself, 
and in which all his darling habits might be 
indulged. Throughout the expedition, his un- 
hesitating and unshrinking boldness secured the 
favor of the commander, while his freedom, 
good humor and wit were equally efficacious 
with his fellow-soldiers. None of the higher 
qualities for which he afterwards became re- 
nowned were at that time apparent. He seemed 
to be more fitted to accomplish the plans de- 
vised by the sagacity of others, than to con- 
ceive by his own wisdom that which by his 
own daring, or that of those under his com- 
mand, should be subsequently executed. But 
the seeds were in him ; and if the progress 
of development was slow, it was yet constant 
and certain. 

After the conquest of the island, Velasquez, 
who now became its governor, appointed him 
one of his secretaries. But the license which 
he allowed himself in the pursuit of pleasure 
frequently exposed him to personal danger, and 



34 CORTES. 

at length involved him in a serious quarrel with 
his patron the governor. This led him to join 
a party which in such a state of society would 
be sure to exist, composed of persons who be- 
lieved that their merits were overlooked, their 
just claims disregarded, and ascribed all the 
blame to the unjust partiality of Velasquez. 
These discontented persons met from time to 
time at the house of Cortes ; and they talked 
over their grievances till they believed them 
to be so great as to require the interposition of 
higher authority. Knowing the fearless dispo- 
sition of Cortes, they fixed on him as their rep- 
resentative to the governor of Hispaniola, to 
whom Velasquez was subordinate. The under- 
taking was a hazardous one, as the arm of the 
sea, eighteen leagues wide, could only, in their 
circumstances, be crossed in an open boat. But 
the plot was discovered and Cortes thrown into 
prison. 

Velasquez was so enraged, that it is said he 
was only prevented by powerful intercession from 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 35 

ordering his instant death. He contented him- 
self with confining him in chains. In a few 
days the prisoner succeeded in effecting his 
escape ; but was soon recaptured, again fettered 
and put on board a vessel to be taken to His- 
paniola for trial. Scarcely was the vessel under 
weigh when Cortes managed to free his limbs 
from the manacles that bound them, and in the 
darkness of the night let himself down from the 
vessel into a boat floating below. But the waves 
were too high and the current too strong for 
him to expect safely from the boat : he therefore 
plunged into the water, and when nearly ex- 
hausted reached the shore where he fled to 
the nearest church for sanctuary. 
His popular manners had made him a general 
favorite, and his friends labored to effect a recon- 
ciliation. It would not be easy to bring two 
such proud spirits, so differently circumstanced, 
and each believing himself to be wronged, into 
the agreement of a cordial reconciliation. This 
however was at length done, and the union ap- 



36 CORTES. 

pears to have been permanent. Cortes was not 
restored to the secretaryship, but he received 
a liberal grant of land, and was appointed to an 
important civil office. To these more steady 
pursuits he for some time devoted himself. He 
was now married, living happily with his wife ; 
and possessed of considerable wealth. The 
bold adventurer appears to have settled down 
into the regular agricultural trader. An event 
however occurred which placed him in very 
different circumstances ; renewed the qualities 
which had appeared to become dormant; fully 
developed his hitherto latent faculties ; raised 
him to an eminence scarcelv inferior to that 
which Columbus had reached, and in the annals 
of history inscribed his name as the second of the 
three great discoverers of the New World — 
Christopher Columbus, Fernando Cortes, 
and Francisco Pizarro. 



CHAPTER III. 

POSITION OF MEXICO — DE CORDOVA LANDS AT 
YUCATAN — OUTFIT OF EXPEDITION UNDER 
CORTES TO SUBDUE MEXICO. 

TT is astonishing that the sea to the west of 
A Cuba, now termed the Gulf of Mexico, had 
so long remained unexplored. An inspection of 
the map will show the singular conformation 
of its bounding coast-line. On the south side 
of the isthmus the course of the land is nearly 
in a straight direction, something lower than 
northwest. On the north side where it reaches 
15° latitude, at the Bay of Honduras, its direc- 
tion becomes north with a slight inclination to 

the east. This extends to about latitude 22°. 

37 



38 CORTES. 

It then turns to the west for two degrees, 
when it takes a southward direction for four 
or five degrees, forming the peninsula of Yuc- 
atan. Proceeding a few degrees to the west 
it sweeps north-westward and northward to 
about latitude 29°, when it takes an easterly 
direction for about fourteen degrees. In the 
middle of this upper line of coast — the north- 
ern boundary of the gulf — where stands the 
modern city of New Orleans, the great Mis- 
sissippi, the "father of waters," pours his 
floods, about eight degrees due north from 
the northern extremity of Yucatan. Six de- 
grees from the mouths of the Mississippi the 
coast takes a south-easterly direction for five 
degrees, and then turns to the north, forming 
the peninsula of East Florida. From the north 
point of Yucatan to the south cape of Florida, 
a line drawn in a north-east direction would 
measure about six degrees and a half, and 
would enclose what would then be the almost 
circular sea now termed the Gulf of Mexico 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 39 

Between these points of Florida and Yucatan 
comes the westerly end of Cuba. From Florida 
to the nearest part of Cuba is only two de- 
grees; and from the west end of Cuba to 
Yucatan is no more. If the map be again ex- 
amined, it will be seen that the Spanish city 
of Vera Cruz is situated in the lower part of 
the gulf, just where the coast turns from its 
north-west to its northern direction. 

At Vera Cruz the isthmus from north to 
south, is three degrees wide ; but a line drawn 
due west to the shores of the Pacific would 
measure not less than eight degrees. Supposing 
the country to be level as it appears on the 
map, the city of Mexico stands about three 
degrees on the line from Vera Cruz, that is 
from the eastern sea or Gulf of Mexico, and 
five from the western or great Pacific Ocean. 
If to this description of the coast be added 
that which has been already furnished of the 
course of the Andes along the Isthmus of 
Darien, connecting in one system the vast 



40 CORTES. 

mountain-sweep of North and South America, 
some idea may be formed of the character of 
the regions in which were performed the stu- 
pendous exploits of Cortes ; for considering the 
numerical forces arrayed on * each side, stupen- 
dous they indeed were. 

Early in February, 1517, De Cordova, a Span- 
ish gentleman, sailed from Cuba on an expedi- 
tion to the Bahamas in quest of Indian slaves. 
Heavy gales drove him to the westward and 
southward on an unknown coast. The country 
received, from some misunderstood word, the 
name of Yucatan. All that he saw indicated 
a civilization higher than any which the Span- 
iards had yet witnessed. He returned with his 
report and valuable specimens of golden orna- 
ments. The governor in May 1518. sent an 
expedition to make further discoveries under 
his nephew Grijalva. He likewise was impressed 
by all that he saw ; and coasting along the 
inner shores of the great gulf he soon heard 
intelligence of a mighty empire and reports of 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 41 

the greatness of its distant capital. He sent 
back one of his captains, Pedro de Alvaraclo 
with specimens of gold and intelligence, while 
he himself tarried a little longer to collect 
more of both. 

On his own return he was reproached by 
Velasquez for not having established a colony 
though it would have been contrary to the 
instructions he had received ; he also found that 
the governor had resolved to fit out an expedi- 
tion on a scale large enough to secure the con- 
quest of the country. Whilst doing this he 
despatched his chaplain to Spain with the royal 
share of gold, and petitioning for full powers 
to proceed with his projects. To command the 
armament he was preparing he fixed on Cortes. 
both as a fit person for the undertaking, and 
as possessing sufficient property to enable him 
to share in the expense. 

Cortes received the appointment with eager 
joy. The prospects with which he had left- 
Europe now opened afresh before him. The 



42 CORTES. 

reports brought by Cordova, Alvarado and Gri- 
jalva of a powerful empire in the west — the 
real source of the greater portion of the gold 
that had been obtained — convinced him that 
this was the country of which Columbus had 
heard ; on which so much of mystery still rested. 
The country which he would have discovered had 
he pursued his course to the north when at Hon- 
duras in 1502, instead of returning southward 
in search of straits opening into the Pacific. 
" I have opened the gate for others to enter," 
was an expression which he used in the bit- 
terness of his soul, when neglect and disap- 
pointment began to press heavily upon him. 

Cortes believed that into this open gate he 
had now the opportunity of entering ; and the 
idea so filled his mind that his whole character 
underwent a change. He became thoughtful 
and serious ; and in the persuasion that great- 
ness like that of his pioneer was about to be 
won by him, his deportment became dignified, 
and liis cheerful elasticity was employed in stim- 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 43 

ulating those who were to be the companions 
of his enterprise and toil ; and so fixing their 
attachment to himself, that he might always con- 
fidently reckon upon their co-operation. He 
advanced all the ready money he possessed, and 
mortgaged his estates for more, devoting the 
whole to the expense required for fitting out 
such an expedition as he deemed necessary. It 
was said by his friends that he bore the chief 
part of the pecuniary burden ; while it is on 
all hands allowed that his contributions went 
to the utmost extent of his means. 

The instructions for his proceedings were 
drawn up by Velasquez. He was to survey the 
coast with great care, and to obtain the fullest 
information as to the condition and natural pro- 
ductions of the country. With the natives he 
was to trade ; but always to act with such jus- 
tice, caution and kindness, as to secure their 
good-will. Cordova on his return from Yuca- 
tan had brought a report of some captive Span- 
iards in the interior. These if possible, he was 



44 CORTES. 

to liberate. He was especially to seek to pro- 
mote the conversion of the Indians to Christian- 
ity, and their subjection to Spain. 

Cortes felt that a task equal to his ambition 
was now intrusted to him. But Velasquez, struck 
perhaps with the bearing of Cortes, and jealous 
of his own authority, began to fear lest he should 
find a rival instead of a servant. He at length 
resolved to appoint another officer to the com- 
mand. But Cortes had seen his altered de- 
meanor and was on his guard. He had firm 
friends, too in the secretaries of the governor; 
and from them he received an intimation of this 
projected change. He saw the necessity of de- 
cision and promptitude ; and though he had 
neither the full number of vessels nor men, and 
was but inadequately supplied with stores, he 
determined to sail that very night; and when 
Velasquez rose in the morning (November 18th, 
1519), the little fleet had already weighed anchor. 
The astonished governor with his retinue has- 
tened to the quay. Cortes had perceived his 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 45 

approach, and in an open boat came within 
speaking distance. The governor asked him if 
that was his courteous way of taking leave. 
The reply was : ; - Time presses ; and there are 
some things that should be done before they are 
even thought of." He then asked if his Excel- 
lency had any commands ; and as Velasquez 
felt that he could not execute his design, he was 
silent and the boat returned to the vessels with 
their commander. 

He only sailed however to the port of Macaca, 
fifteen leagues distant, where he laid in what 
supplies he could obtain and soon after to Trin- 
idad a more considerable town on the southern 
coast. Here he set up his standard in front of 
his quarters : that standard which was after- 
wards to wave in triumph over all the forces of 
Aztec (Mexican) power. He invited volunteers 
to join him and the call was obeyed by many : 
among them, a hundred of those who had just 
returned from Grijalva's expedition. A number 
of cavaliers of distinction anticipating wealth 



46 CORTES. 

and honors under a leader so enterprising 
joined him. The names of Pedro de Alvarado, 
his brothers, Cristoval de Olid, Alonzo de Avila, 
Juan Velasquez de Leon, a near relation of the 
governor, Alonzo Fernando de Puertocarrero, and 
Gonzalo de Sandoval, frequently occur in the 
history of the great conquest. 

The accession of these persons conferred a 
still more honorable character on the expedi- 
tion. The governor tried various schemes to 
bring Gortes into his power ; but they failed 

of success and only occasioned a greater enmity 
between him and his subordinate. The latter 
already assumed the state of a man of high 
rank. He felt himself, as it were, ennobled by 
his thoughts and prospects. His standard was 
of black velvet embroidered with gold and 
emblozoned with a red cross amidst flames of 
blue and white. Beneath was the motto in 
Latin : " Friends, let us follow the Cross ; 
and under this sign if we have faith we shall 
conquer." 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 47 

Velasquez made his last attempt to gain pos- 
session of the person of Cortes just before the 
expedition was ready to sail. The fleet was 
now lying at the Havannah, and Don Pedro 
Barba, the governor, received commands from 
Velasquez to prevent the departure of the ves- 
sels, and apprehend their commander. Barba 
saw that even if he had had the inclination, 
the power to do this would have been want- 
ing. The officers and men who had embarked 
in an expedition to which such importance was 
attached were entirely devoted to their head, 
and regarded the conduct of Velasquez as a 
persecution both ungenerous and unpatriotic. 
This attempt, therefore, like the others, only 
served more widely to alienate the parties. 
Cortes, however, wrote in conciliatory terms, 
promising that the governor's interests should 
not be neglected, adding that he should sail 
the next morning, February 10th. Cape St. 
Antonio, the western extremity of Cuba, was 
appointed as the place of rendezvous : and 



48 CORTES. 

when he had arrived there, he finally ascer- 
tained the amount of the force on which he 
had to depend. 

His vessels were eleven in number. The one 
in which Cortes sailed was of a hundred tons 
burden, three others from seventy to eighty, 
the rest caravels and open brigantines. He had 
a hundred and ten mariners, five hundred and 
fifty-three soldiers besides two hundred Indians 
and a few Indian women for menial offices. 
He had also sixteen horses, ten heavy guns, 
four lighter pieces called falconets, and a good 
supply of ammunition. Before the final embark- 
ation he addressed them in his own rough but 
spirit-stirring eloquence ; appealing to their re- 
ligious zeal, their avarice and their ambition. 
He was heard with acclamations, and all seemed 
eager to follow such a chief on such an en- 
terprise. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE EXPEDITION SAILS — ARRIVAL AT YUCATAN 
— JEROME DE AGUILAR — EIGHT WITH IN- 
DIANS AT TABASCO — MARINA, THE EEMALE 
INTERPRETER — MONTEZUMA. 

/^VN the 18th of February 1519, the expedi- 
^-^ tion destined to reduce the independent 
empire of Mexico to a Spanish province, sailed 
from Cuba. A violent storm separated the ves- 
sels before their arrival at the small island of 
Cozumel, on the eastern coast of Yucatan. 
Alvarado arrived first and behaved with such 
violence that the natives fled to the interior of 
the Island ; and when Cortes himself landed 

he had great difficulty in restoring confidence. 

5 1 



52 COETES. 

Trade was at length established, and the com- 
mander soon found reason to believe that the 
report concerning the captive Christians was 
correct. He therefore sent two brigantines to 
the western side of the peninsula, with orders 
to remain eight days. Some Indians were to 
seek for them, and deliver letters inviting them 
to return, offering a liberal ransom for their, 
release. 

In the meantime Cortes sought to carry out 
his instructions both for intercourse with the 
natives, and inducing them to abandon their idol- 
atry. With these Castilian knights there was 
a strange mixture of speculative devotion and 
practical license. Religion consisted in the pro- 
fession of the established belief ; and he who 
was faithful in this by confession, penance and 
absolution could procure deliverance from the 
guilt of his transgressions. By interpreters he 
caused the leading articles of his creed to be 
announced ; and finding the people slow to re- 
nounce the religious customs they had received 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 53 

from their fathers, he acted with Mohammedan 
violence and caused their most venerated images 
to be cast down the stairs of their great temple. 
Without at all excusing this conduct, the ar- 
gument it involved was perhaps the most ef- 
fectual possible to a people with whom the means 
of verbal communication were so imperfect. 
Filled with direful terror at the expected con- 
sequences of the profanation they witnessed, 
when they saw that their gods were unable 
either to defend themselves or to punish their 
enemies, they professed their willingness to 
embrace the new faith, concerning which they 
knew little more than that their own deities 
were powerless in any contest with its professors. 
Ordaz returned at the appointed time ; but 
without learning anything of the Christian 
captives. 

In the beginning of March Cortes proceeded 
on his voyage; but scarcely had they sailed 
when a leak in one of the vessels compelled 
them to return. It was well that it was so. 



54 CORTES. 

A canoe was seen coming from the coast of 
Yucatan bringing an ecclesiastic who had been 
wrecked in the course of a voyage from Darien 
to Hispaniola. Eight years he had been a cap- 
tive, though well treated by his owners. His 
name was Jerome de Aguilar. He bad heard 
of the Spanish fleet from letters sent by Cortes, 
but found so much difficulty in procuring his re- 
lease that but for the brief return of the ships 
he would have been too late. He had become 
thoroughly acquainted with the Indian tongues, 
and when he had recovered his almost forgotten 
Spanish, he was enabled to render the most 
important services as interpreter. 

On the 4th of March the voyage was re- 
sumed. Its course was along the coast: but 
in the lower part of the Gulf Cortes found the 
river of Tabasco where Cordova had carried 
on a lucrative traffic. Though keeping in view 
his visit to the territories of the great Aztec 
monarch he determined to ascend this river, and 
acquaint himself with the resources of this part 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 55 

of the country. He soon found that the In- 
dians were determined to meet him with the 
fiercest hostility ; but he succeeded in taking 
possession of the town of Tabasco. After some 
more skirmishes he learned that the whole 
country was in arms, and that an army con- 
sisting of many thousands, was ready to attack 
them the next day. Cortes resolved to antici- 
pate them. He mustered all his forces, brought 
six of his heavy guns on shore, and all his 
horses. On the 25th of March early in the 
morning, Cortes directed his infantry and ar- 
tillery to march and attack the enemy in 
front while he himself, by a circuitous route 
would come on their flank and rear. The more 
numerous body, after proceeding a few miles 
saw the Indian army, its dusky lines stretching 
along the edge of the horizon as far as the eye 
could reach ; but they paused not in attacking. 
It was the first regular trial of strength be- 
tween discipline and superior arms on the one 
hand, and incomparably superior numbers with 



56 CORTES. 

their ferocious courage and weapons suited to 
their own tactics, on the other. The artillery 
and musketry did fearful execution; but their 
immense numbers so quickly filled the vacan- 
cies in the Indian columns* that their losses 
were scarcely perceived. They pressed closely on 
the Spaniards, and as their army extended far 
beyond the Spanish lines, they soon perceived the 
possibility of surrounding the invaders, and begun 
the attempt. At this critical moment Cortes 
arrived with his miniature squadron of cavalry, 
and charged the multitudes who were endeavor- 
ing to get into the rear of the Spaniards. 
The men were ordered to charge, aiming their 
lance at the face. The poor Indians were now 
panic-stricken. Their own savage yellings had 
prevented all but those who were in the im- 
mediate front — and could see the fire and 
smoke of the artillery — from hearing its roar. 
But here were visible monsters — man and horse 
covered with what their weapons could not 
penetrate, careering through the field unhurt, 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 57 

and dealing death wherever their presence was 
shown. Symptoms of disorder were soon mani- 
fest and the whole Spanish army charged ac- 
cording to the rules of European discipline; 
and where the foot could not reach, the artillery 
rolled its death-thunders from a distance into 
the midst of their masses on the one side, while 
on the other, the few but masterly horsemen 
penetrated through them and then cut their 
way back, till all who could do so fled, and only 
the dead and wounded were left on the field. 
Thus ended this memorable trial of strength. 
The victory made the followers of Cortes brave 
by the persuasion of their own invincibility. 
And there is no doubt that under the Mexican 
political organization, with despotic power at its 
centre, the tidings of this Tabasco Battle and 
the reasons for the defeat of the Indians would 
be conveyed to the Aztec capital, preparing 
the way for future victories by extending the 
deep impression that to the Spaniards victory 
was certain. Among the prisoners taken in 



58 CORTES. 

battle were two chiefs : but the prudent com- 
mander gave them their liberty wishing to 
conciliate by kindness ; though at the same 
time he told them to tell their countrymen 
that if they did not submit," he would ride over 
the land and put everything living to the sword. 
To produce fear as well as to conciliate were 
equally his objects. For the time at least, he 
was successful ; confidence was soon restored, 
presents given, and barter commenced. When 
the Tabascans were asked where the gold came 
from they pointed as usual to the west. 

To the work of conversion also, Cortes ap- 
plied all the means in his power. Processions 
were made, religious services performed, and 
above all images of the Virgin mother and her 
Child exhibited. The ecclesiastics preached on 
the mysteries of the Christian faith and called 
their hearers to renounce their false gods for 
the living and true One. The work was less 
difficult than it might have been, had a rational 
consent been thought necessary ; but the Indian 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 59 

was in fact, only required to exchange his 
own images and services for the images of the 
Spaniards and the greater pomp with which the 
services were performed. The enlightened Rom- 
anist may say that the use of the image is only 
suggestive ; though even in this case, all expe- 
rience proves that the mind is so governed by 
the senses, that beyond the sensible object it 
seldom travels except some particular occurrence 
rouses it to reflection ; but the unthinking and 
ignorant rest in what they see. Such refined 
distinctions are lost on the savage ;; who finds 
such forms of adoration too analogous to his 
own, to impose any great violence on his feel- 
ings. It is only required of him to transfer 
his homage from the image of Quetzalcoatl, the 
benevolent deity who walked among men, to 
that of the Virgin or the Redeemer ; from the 
cross which he has worshipped as the emblem 
of the god of rain, to the same cross, the sym- 
bol of salvation."* And the present condition of 

* Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico. 



60 CORTES. 

Mexico, nominally Christian but ignorant and 
superstitious ; often connecting gross immorality 
with a bigoted observance of religious forms, 
proves the true character of the conversion which 
the Spaniards at first were so anxious to pro- 
mote, and of the devotion they have since been 
so careful to maintain. 

Leaving Tabasco, Cortes continued along the 
coast until he arrived and anchored at an 
island to which Grijalva had given the name of 
St. Juan de Ulua, and opposite to which the 
city of Vera Cruz was afterwards built. In his 
intercourse with the natives it was found that 
Aguilar knew not their language, and they were 
all at a loss till the deficiency w r as supplied 
by a young female, one of twenty who had been 
given to Cortes by the cacique of Tabasco. She 
was a native of Mexico but had been carried 
away into slavery in Tabasco. She had become 
thoroughly acquainted with the language, with- 
out forgetting her own. She could thus inter- 
pret to Aguilar what he, in his turn rendered 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 61 

into Spanish. Or when he had received a mes- 
sage in Spanish, he delivered it to her in Ta- 
bascan and she to the natives in their own 
tongue. The Spaniards had given her the name 
of Marina ; and in the progress of events she 
was the instrument of the most important ser- 
vices to them. Cortes made her his interpreter 
and then his secretary. She became strongly 
attached to him and lived with him as his 
wife. 

He now learned that the country was a pro- 
vince of the great Mexican empire, having not 
long before been annexed to it by conquest ; 
and that it was governed by one of the Mexican 
nobles. The ruling monarch was called by a 
name which as pronounced by the Spaniards, 
has become the one that has been transmitted 
to our own times, Montezuma. Cortes ascer- 
tained that there was abundance of gold in the 
interior, and resolved to take up his quarters 
there for the present. The next morning, April 
21st, being Good Friday, he landed with all his 



62 CORTES. 

forces little thinking that one day a flourishing 
city should stand there, the commercial capital 
of New Spain. He landed on a wide and sandy 
plain in which were many stagnant marshes. 
The heat of the sun especially as beating on 
the sand was intense, and the provident com- 
mander saw immediately that shelter was nec- 
essary for his troops. They set about construct- 
ing huts of stakes covered with boughs, mats 
and cotton carpets ; these were furnished by the 
natives who in various ways assisted them, by 
the orders of the governor, whose residence was 
about eight leagues distant. To guard against 
surprise his artillery was landed and planted 
on some of the sandy hillocks in the neighbor- 
hood. The natives soon began to flock around 
the strangers ; and in the course of a day or 
two they were visited by Teuhtlile, the gover- 
nor. Cortes found that he had no longer to 
deal with rude barbarians. The governor came 
with a large retinue and much pomp, and 
brought with him rich presents. After many 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 63 

ceremonies, by the aid of Marina and Aguilar 
an important conversation took place. The gov- 
ernor asked the object of his coming ; to which 
Cortes replied that he was the subject of a 
most powerful monarch, who hearing of the 
greatness of the Mexican emperor, had sent him 
as his envoy with a message which he must 
deliver in person. He wished therefore, to know 
when he could be admitted to the royal pres- 
ence. At the same time the wish for gold was 
very plainly made known. 

A remarkable circumstance occurred at this 
interview — the commencement of the t official 
intercourse as it may be termed, of the Span- 
iards and Mexicans. One of the governor's 
attendants was observed to be engaged in de- 
lineating some objects on a canvas prepared 
for the purpose. He was making a sketch of all 
he saw, in appropriate color and form. Cortes 
learned that in this way, accounts of what hap- 
pened at a distance were furnished to the mon- 
arch. It was in fact, the picture ivriting of the 



64 CORTES. 

Aztec race, by which the memory of past events 
was recorded as well as the knowedge of those 
which existed at the present communicated. No 
sooner did Cortes know this than he resolved 
that the account should be such as would make 
a deep impression of Spanish power on a monarch 
whose mind was not less hauffhty than his own. 
He therefore made the troops perform their 
military exercises. On the firm beach likewise, 
his small body of cavalry went through their 
evolutions. Everything astonished the beholders. 
But when the cannon poured forth lightning and 
thunder, and sent the balls like thunder-bolts 
among the trees of the forest crushing them to 
fragments, their terror scarcely knew bounds. 
All however was faithfully represented — the 
ships, the men. the cavalry, the cannon and 
other firearms : and a lively view of the whole 
thus prepared for transmission to Montezuma. 

Notwithstanding the extent and power of the 
Mexican empire, it had many elements of weak- 
ness. It comprised several states annexed to it 




GUATEMALIAN IDOL. 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 67 

by conquest, whose people were impatient of 
the yoke to which they were compelled to sub- 
mit. Midway between the valley of Mexico 
and the coast, likewise existed the small and 
independent republic of Tlascala; not inferior 
in civilization, courage, and resources to the 
rival state with whom it maintained only a pre- 
carious friendship. Heavy taxes also, had pro- 
duced a wide-spread feeling of discontent. But 
the despotic rule of the emperor w r as upheld 
both by a strong military force and by the ty- 
ranny of a sanguinary and enthralling supersti- 
tion. In this, the existence of a supreme Lord 
was acknowledged ; but with him were associ- 
ated a number of subordinate deities, thirteen 
principal and two hundred inferior ones. To 
all these some especial festival-clay was appro- 
priated. Human sacrifices were frequent and 
numerous. A more murderous system never 
was devised. Thousands upon thousands were 
slaughtered annually. 

At the head of these worshipped deities — 



68 CORTES. 

for the one Supreme was acknowledged rather 
than worshipped — was Huitzilopotchli, the Mars 
of their mythology. He was the patron deity 
of the nation. His image, ever loaded with 
the most costly ornaments, w^as calculated — or 
rather designed — to strike with terror all who 
beheld it, who were not in the secret pos- 
sessed by the wretched and fraudulent priest- 
hood, — of its real impotency. Of all the public 
edifices his temples were the most stately and 
splendid. In every part of the empire his altars 
reeked with the blood of the victims who were 
offered to him by multitudes. He was of colos- 
sal proportions, with an open and capacious 
mouth ; the sacrifice was laid on the altar alive : 
the priest cut open the chest with a sharp stone, 
tore out the quivering heart and fed the mons- 
ter with the warm blood, poured down the 
throat with a large golden spoon. The image 
was placed against a wall behind which was a 
room containing a sort of cistern ; a tube, pass- 
ing through the wall from the mouth commu- 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 69 

nicated with the cistern, into which the blood 
fell with which the horrid figure appeared to 
be fed. The spirit of the religion passed into 
the laws and military system. Death was the 
general punishment; and thus was the reign of 
the monarch an unmitigated reign of terror, 
perpetuating a trembling fear in all its subjects. 
There was one traditionary fable however, 
of dissimilar character. Mexican history had 
its remote golden age under the sway of Quet- 
zalcoatl, represented as the god of the air ; a 
beneficent deity who instructed them in agri- 
culture, the use of the metals they possessed, 
and the science of government. Nature teemed 
with plenty and man was happy. But he in- 
curred the displeasure of some more powerful 
deity, and was compelled to abandon the coun- 
try. He departed towards the east. On his 
way to the coast he stopped at the city of 
Cholula, where a pyramid temple was erected 
to him (see page 131). Its ruins are among 
the most interesting of Mexican antiquities. 



70 COETES. 

When he had reached the shores of the gulf, 
in taking leave of his followers, he gave them 
a promise that he and his descendants would 
return at a future period. According to the 
fable he w 7 as tall in stature, having a white 
skin, long and dark hair and a flowing beard. 
When the terrible character of the reigning 
superstition is recollected, no surprise will be 
felt at the cherished preservation of this tra- 
dition. Human nature is everywhere and al- 
ways the same in those principles and feelings 
which are found at the basis of all character ; 
however much the development may be warped, 
and even prevented or changed by the power 
of the circumstances to which the whole man 
is subjected. To a religion of blood men may 
be compelled to submit ; but they can never 
love it. By malignant fanatics it may be en- 
forced with a sort of demon-joy ; but whenever 
its claims were brought to bear on the personal, 
domestic, or social affections a principle of re- 
bellion would unavoidably be called into exist- 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 71 

ence. The only hold which the monarch and 
priests had on the allegiance and devotion of 
the people was terror; powerful while it could 
be maintained, but melting away in the pros- 
pect of an efficient and promised protection. 

The reigning monarch of Mexico had been 
in his early youth a courageous and active war- 
rior; but this mode of life he had renounced 
for the priesthood ; which indeed, seems better 
to have suited his disposition. His demeanor 
was grave and reserved and his speech delib- 
erate and brief. Superior sanctity, as under- 
stood by his people, distinguished him ; and to 
the burdensome ceremonial of the temple-service 
he was scrupulously attentive. The portraits of 
him that have been preserved agree with the 
descriptions given at the time of his character. 
An air melancholy but dignified bespoke his 
though tf ulness as well as consciousness of power. 
He was the nephew of the last monarch and 
grandson of a preceding one ; and had been 
chosen in preference to nearer relatives chiefly 



72 CORTES. 

because of the combination in him of soldier 
and priest. 

He came to the throne in the year 1502. 
Before his coronation he led an expedition 
against a neighboring province which had re- 
belled and returned in triumph with a large 
number of captives. The postponed inaugura- 
tion then took place, and was celebrated with 
great pomp. There was a profuse display of 
wealth and semi-barbaric, semi-civilized splendor. 
Games of strength and agility shed gleams of 
brilliancy amidst the deep gloom of religious 
ceremonies in which the altars streamed with 
the blood of the victims whose limbs still quiv- 
ered on them with the convulsive movements of 
departing life, and whose palpitating hearts were 
presented to the gory countenance of the horrid 
idol. Debased as was the Christianity of the 
Spaniards, and capable of lighting up the fires 
which at their Acts of Faith should consume 
the Jews and heretics whom its ministers pro- 
nounced accursed, and condemned to an agoniz- 




MONTEZUMA. 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 75 

« 

ing death, yet comparatively, even this religion 
was mercy to Mexico. 

The splendor of royalty and the power of des- 
potism wrought no change in the character of 
Montezuma. Mild in his manners, superstition 
wrought in him to the production of a pensive 
melancholy which he sought not to shake off. 
In the tradition which promised the return of 
Quetzalcoatl he believed as firmly as his sub- 
jects. The remarkable coincidence also between 
the fabled description of the personal appear- 
ance of the deity and his attendants, and that 
of the strangers who came by such wonderful 
conveyances to the land ; from the very quarter 
to which Quetzalcoatl was reported to have de- 
parted ; together with their possession of the 
death-dealing power of the lightning and thun- 
der ; produced an impression both on him and 
his people that in no small degree prepared the 
way for their success. Comparing the hand- 
ful of invaders with the hosts of the defend- 



76 CORTES. 

ers, it forms one of the most astonishing events 
in the history of mankind. 

When the tidings of the arrival of Grijalva 
the preceding year had been sent to the court 
in the usual way — for it was one of the laws 
of the empire that the monarch should without 
loss of time be informed of everything that 
occurred in all parts of his dominions — the 
traditionary prediction seemed about to be ful- 
filled. All were impressed; but Montezuma was 
alarmed. The departure of Grijalva only in part 
relieved him. He feared their return and mea- 
sures were taken to give him the earliest no- 
tice of the event, should it take place. It was 
not long before he received the dreaded intel- 
ligence. Directions had previously been re- 
ceived by the provincial governor for their 
hospitable reception ; and the drawings taken 
during the interview between the governor and 
Cortes had been transmitted to the metropolis. 
The apprehensions of the emperor were revived 
and he called a- meeting of his principal counsel- 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 77 

lors to advise respecting the measures which 
should be adopted. Opinions varied. The re- 
pulsion of the strangers by force or fraud was 
the judgment of some; although both would be 
useless as against supernatural visitants, yet that 
they were not such, was thought to be evident 
from their conduct at Tabasco ; accounts of 
which had been forwarded to the court, which 
rendered their perfect opposition to the ancient 
religion unquestionable. Others were in favor 
of giving them a friendly and honorable recep- 
tion, inasmuch as they professed to be envoys 
from a foreign prince in some distant part of 
the world. 

Montezuma was fearful and adopted neither 
alternative. After listening to his advisers he 
decided for himself, and fixed on one of those 
half measures which seldom succeed ; being 
equally powerless for the prevention of evil 
and for the attainment of good. He resolved to 
send an imposing embassy to the strangers with 
presents of great value ; forbidding at the same 



78 CORTES. 

time their approach to his capital. Had he 
known the men with whom he was thus about 
to deal, he might have foreseen the result. By 
the display of such splendor and wealth, pro- 
claiming the opulence of the country, Spanish 
avarice could not fail of being inflamed ; while 
to a mind penetrating and far-seeing as that of 
Cortes, and to which the conquest of the empire 
was already a determined object the prohibition 
was only an expression of fear and conscious 
weakness. 



CHAPTER V. 

EMBASSY FROM MONTEZUMA WITH PRESENTS 
FOR CORTES — VISITED BY THE TOTONACS — 
A COLONY FORMED — A MUTINY QUELLED. 

/"^ORTES and his companions still remained 
^"^ at the place where they had first landed. 
They already began to experience the effects 
of the heat in that particular locality. The 
governor had given directions that all which 
could contribute to their comfort should be done 
for them. Not only were provisions brought 
but a sufficient number of huts were constructed 
of branches and matting for their occupation. 
Cortes had been informed that a message might 
be expected from the emperor ; but as he was 

79 



80 CORTES. 

not then acquainted with the rapid convey- 
ance of intelligence to the capital by means 
of posts, nor with the speed with which mes- 
sengers might travel downwards to the coast, 
he received it in much* less time than he an- 
ticipated. 

The royal embassy arrived in about eight 
days. It consisted of two nobles accompanied 
by the governor. A hundred slaves bore the 
munificent presents which Montezuma had sent. 
On being introduced to the general, they paid 
him the highest respect and then spread the 
various articles before him. They were valuable 
beyond expectation, including large quantities of 
gold and silver chiefly in manufactured orna- 
ments. A Spanish helmet had been sent to 
gratify the emperor's curiosity; and this was 
returned filled with gold in grains. There 
were also two circular plates of gold and sil- 
ver as large as carriage wheels. Certain arti- 
cle of the finest texture, richly adorned with 
plumage of the most beautiful colors, and a 
very large quantity of the cotton cloth of the 






CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 81 

country were included. The Spaniards gazed 
in delighted astonishment and saw their wild- 
est dreams surpassed. Rich as were the ma- 
terials, they were if possible, exceeded by the 
beauty and grandeur of the workmanship. 

But when the presents had been given and 
surveyed the message of the envoys had to be 
delivered. It was to the effect that while the 
emperor had pleasure in this communication 
with the king of Spain, yet the journey to 
the capital was so distant and beset with such 
difficulties and dangers, that he could not con- 
sent to it ; and that therefore, the strangers 
must return to their own land without a per- 
sonal interview taking with them the proofs 
he had sent of his friendly disposition. This 
message was given with the utmost courtesy 
and respect ; and Cortes, though mortified at 
the refusal, concealed what he felt and an- 
swered in like manner, but persisting in his 
request. After sailing over two thousand 
leagues of ocean. He would think little of 



82 CORTES. 

seventy leagues by land. The ambassadors un- 
willingly charged themselves with this message 
and took their leave. And now Cortes began 
to experience some of the difficulties which he 
had to overcome before his great object was 
achieved. Venomous insects disturbed the re- 
pose of the Spaniards. The insalubrity of the 
climate produced sickness and thirty had al- 
ready died. The natives became less friendly ; 
provisions less plentiful and their price much 
higher. The open roadstead too, afforded 
no shelter for the vessels against the violent 
gales that sometimes suddenly arose. 

' While awaiting the return of the ambassa- 
dors, Cortes despatched tw^o vessels to explore 
the coast to the north for a safer port and 
more commodious quarters. In ten days the 
representatives of Montezuma returned, once 
more bringing a valuable present, but repeating 
the prohibition, to visit- the capital in more 
positive terms. Two days afterwards the ves- 
sels returned. Only one place at all superior 



COKQUEST OF MEXICO. 83 

to their present situation had been found and 
thither he proposed to repair. But other 
troubles began to arise. Discontents sprang up 
among his followers, many of whom feared the 
result of hostilities with the powerful monarch 
of Mexico. While revolving his situation in 
his mind, before deciding on what he should 
do, five Indians evidently from a distance, en- 
tered the camp. They came from Cempoalla, 
the chief town of the Totonacs ; a powerful 
nation settled on the sierras and broad plains 
skirting the Mexican gulf towards the north. 
They had been recently subdued by the Mex- 
icans, and oppression had made them impatient 
of the yoke. They had heard of tha Span- 
iards and came to invite them to visit the 
capital. Cortes was not aware of the divisions 
of the empire ; but this glimpse of them was 
sufficient to show him how much he might 
gain by taking advantage of it. He therefore 
dismissed them with presents and promised 
soon to comply with their request. 



84 CORTES. 

But dissensions soon began to appear in the 
camp. His more immediate friends, fearing 
that a departure for Cuba would deprive 
them of much which they had already gained, 
and more for which they hoped, pressed for 
the establishment of a colony by which they 
might secure their own interests : but the friends 
of Velasquez took the alarm and said that 
loyalty to him called them to sail, and, deliv- 
ering their report, receive from him directions 
for the future. The general seemed to ac- 
quiesce and even gave orders for the troops 
to prepare for embarkation. But this pro- 
duced greater clamor than before. The ter- 
ritories it was said, were not discovered for 
the governor of Cuba, but for the monarch of 
Spain, and care must be taken that his au- 
thority and interests received no damage. After 
some time spent in at least the show of de- 
liberation, Cortes professed his readiness to 
yield, and to settle a colony $nd nominate 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 85 

magistrates in the name of the sovereign of 
Spain. This was at once clone. 

The new city received the name of Vera Cruz ; 
and when the newly-appointed council met, Cortes 
resigned to it the powers he had received from 
Velasquez, and left the place where they were 
assembled. He was very soon recalled and in- 
formed that they had named him captain-general 
and chief justice of the colony. At first the 
party attached to Velasquez endeavored to 
excite opposition ; but the prompt activity of 
Cortes in imprisoning some and addressing 
liberal promises to all, calmed the tumult, and 
eventually most of his opponents became his 
steady friends: so that he now found himself 
free to proceed without a superior in the pur- 
suit of the magnificent objects he had proposed 
to himself: and in which, though failure would 
be disgrace and ruin, success would place him 
on the highest pinnacle of glory. 

He commenced his operations by ordering the 
fleet to sail, with the heavy guns, to the port 



86 COKTES. 

designed for the new city towards the north; 
whilst he proceeded along the coast proposing 
to visit Cempoalla on the march. At first they 
passed along a sandy waste ; while far to the 
left they saw the lofty ridges bounding the val- 
ley towards which all their hopes were directed, 
and rising far above them, the extinct volcano 
of Orizaba (upwards of seventeen thousand feet 
above the ocean), called by the Mexicans "the 
Star Mountain." Afterwards the country became 
beautiful and rich, teeming with animal and veg- 
etable life. Arriving at Cempoalla, he found 
that it contained between twenty and thirty 
thousand inhabitants. The chief boasted that 
he could muster a hundred thousand warriors 
and informed the Spanish general that between 
that place and Mexico lay the warlike and in- 
dependent republic of Tlascala. He nevertheless 
evidently held Montezuma in great dread ; say- 
ing that he was, merciless in his exactions, and 
that where obedience was refused he would take 
vengeance on the offending people, by seizing 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 87 

many of their youths male and female to be 
sacrified to his deities. 4i If we should dare to 
rebel," he added, "his armies would pour down 
the mountains like a torrent, and sweep all away 
to slavery or sacrifice." Cortes assured him that 
if supported by the Spaniards he might depend 
on security. 

In a day or two he proceeded to the intended 
port about four leagues distant, where the ships 
were now at anchor. He was soon followed by 
the cacique of Cempoalla. While deliberating 
on his future movements five men richly dressed 
and of haughty demeanor entered the market- 
place scarcely deigning to notice the Spaniards 
as they passed. They were Aztec nobles, sent 
to receive the usual tribute and to demand 
twenty young men and women to be sacrificed 
as a punishment for having received the Span- 
iards without permission from the emperor. The 
general devised a stratagem by which he might 
show Montezuma that he defied his enmity and yet 
was willing to conciliate his friendship. To the 



88 CORTES. 

Totonacs he expressed great indignation, and re- 
quired them to cast these envoys into prison. 
In the course of the night he procured the 
liberation of two of them, told them that their 
companions should be freed the next daj^ and 
desired them to report this to their master and 
to express his continued regard, though of late 
he had dealt so unkindly with him. He after- 
wards sent messages to the different towns of 
the Totonacs, calling upon them to refuse any 
further payment of tribute. After some hesita- 
tion, through fear, the people feeling they had 
gone to far for their own safety agreed to em- 
brace the protection of the strangers and to 
become the vassals of the Spanish crown. 

The imprisonment of his collectors excited 
the highest indignation of the emperor ; but 
their subsequent liberation gratified him, and 
under the influence of his superstitious fears, 
he again resorted to his timid policy. He sent 
princely gifts by a splendid embassy who were 
to offer his thanks for the liberation of his 







m 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 91 

nobles ; but to express his regret that he should 
at all have countenanced his faithless vassals. 
The rebels, they were to add, should be spared 
whilst he was present but the time of vengeance 
would come, Cortes received them with dignified 
courtesy and ordered them to repeat the message 
he had formerly sent, that he would visit the em- 
peror when all differences should be adjusted. 
The Totonacs were all astonished. Accustomed 
to tremble at the very name of Montezuma, 
they had dreaded the issue of their conduct, and 
regarded with admiration the men who, even 
under the existing circumstances were treated 
by him as his friends. 

While the army was in the neighborhood of 
Cempoalla, an outburst of religious zeal took 
place, too characteristic of the Spanish proceed- 
ings, not to be mentioned. The cacique could 
not readily believe all that the missionaries told 
him of the Christian's God and Saviour, and 
refused to interfere with the religious services 
of his own priests, assuring his visitors that his 



92 CORTES. 

gods would themselves avenge any insult offered 
to them. That the Spaniards had no right to 
attempt to force their own belief on the people 
on whose shores they had landed without invita- 
tion, no one will deny ;. but the character of 
the services they witnessed maj- be pleaded, 
not indeed to justify, but in some degree to ex- 
tenuate their conduct. More than once they 
had seen the barbarous rites, the horrible sacri- 
fices, the disgusting cannibalism of the butcher 
priesthood. Cortes declared that such atrocities 
should cease ; and his men at once agreed to 
stand by him in the execution of his purpose. 
They marched towards one of the principal tem- 
ples.* The cacique called his men to arms. 
The priests with their long hair dishevelled 
and matted with blood, ran wildly among the 
natives who rushed together in tumult and de- 



* These were called ' Teocallies.' They were of various 
heights, some of them very lofty ; their form was pyramidal, 
squares diminishing in size, and so surrounded by a sort of 
terrace standing on each other, with a steep ascent of steps 
in the middle. 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 93 

clared their resolution to defend their gods 
though they lost their lives. 

Cortes instantly ordered the arrest of the 
cacique with some of the principal inhabitants 
and priests. He commanded fchem to still the 
people ; for if an arrow were shot they should 
be put to death. Marina, too, expostulated 
w T ith them. " If they lost the favor of the 
Spaniards/' she said, "what would they do 
against Montezuma?" The Totonac chief could 
do no more, but covered his face that he 
might not behold the outrage, and declared 
that the gods would avenge their own wrongs. 
Fifty soldiers now sprang up the stairs, en- 
tered the temple on the summit, the walls of 
which were black with human gore, tore the 
huge wooden idols from their places and 
rolled them down amidst the acclamations of 
their comrades and the groans of the natives, 
who looked for some dreadful stroke on the 
violators of their sanctuary, and on themselves 
for permitting it. Nothing of the kind came. 



94 CORTES. 

Theirs were not gods who could answer by 
fire, and their worshippers confessed the supe- 
rior power of the objects of Spanish adoration. 
The temple was surrendered to Cortes, who 
ordered it to be cleansed from its impurities 
and an altar to be raised surmounted by a 
large stone cross ; an image of the Virgin, 
decorated with flowers was then borne aloft 
in solemn procession and placed above the 
altar. The Indians without difficulty trans- 
ferred their allegiance to the new object set 
before them. If their minds were not en- 
lightened by the knowledge of the true God, 
their inhuman rites were abandoned ; and the 
way opened for them and their descendants 
to know the truth. Would there had been 
among them ministers of the truly apostolic type, 
" faithful men, who should be able to teach 
others also ! " 

Cortes now returned to the place where he 
first landed, and found a small vessel which 
had followed him in quest of adventure. 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 95 

Twelve soldiers and two horses were the whole 
of the reinforcement he thus obtained ; but to 
him this was comparatively considerable. But 
something more was wanting that he might 
feel himself fully secure, and he believed 
that the time had arrived for this additional 
step. He knew both the enmity of Velasquez 
and his interest at court, and was persuaded 
that when he heard of the independent posi- 
tion he had assumed, no means of crushing 
him would be left unemployed. He resolved 
therefore, to anticipate him by sending a vessel 
to Spain with despatches to Charles, acquaint- 
ing him with his discoveries and their im- 
portance, and requesting the confirmation of 
his proceedings. To obtain this he was not 
only willing himself to sacrifice his own share 
of the treasure the}^ had collected, but suc- 
ceeded in inducing both officers and soldiers 
to do the same. The fifth, which was the 
royal share, he thought would be too little. 
The whole would be a fitting present for a 



96 CORTES. 

monarch like the emperor of Germany and 
king of Spain. Those who were unwilling to 
surrender their gains he proposed to pay in 
full. But such was the influence over them 
which he had gained, and such were their 
expectations of future wealth were they al- 
lowed to proceed as they had begun, that 
not one refused. Immense quantities of gold' 
and silver were thus sent, together with rich 
and beautiful specimens of native manufac- 
tures. 

His messengers sailed on the 26th of July, 
with orders to proceed directly to Spain not 
stopping by the way and especially not to call 
at Cuba. But with too many, selfish regards 
are stronger than the sense of duty. Montejo, 
one of his envoys, had a plantation on the 
north side of the island, and wishing to visit 
it the vessel stopped there. One of the sailors 
went on shore crossed the island to St. Jago, 
where the Governor resided and gave him in- 
formation of the whole. It was the first he 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 97 

had received beyond vague reports. His worst 
suspicions were more than realized. Jealousy, 
pride, avarice were all roused and his rage 
became furious. He despatched two fast-sailing 
vessels to seize the rebel ship, and if it had 
sailed, to follow it without loss of time. But 
Montejo was gone and arrived safely in Spain 
in October. Thus far Velasquez was disap- 
pointed; but the consequences of the dis- 
obedience of Montejo had nearly been fatal to 
the plans- of Cortes. Velasquez resolved to 
equip an expedition of sufficient strength to 
subdue his rebellious officer, and sought to em- 
ploy all his resources for that purpose. It 
was in the favor of Cortes that he did so, 
as months were unavoidably required for prepa- 
rations on so large a scale. He lost in time 
all that he hoped to gain by power. 

Cortes in the meanwhile was making all 
things ready for his grand undertaking. With 
his handful of men, he was about to grapple 
with the powers of a mighty empire, in 



98 CORTES. 

what he knew must be to one of the parties a 
death-struggle. Just then a conspiracy was 
formed by a number of disaffected persons to 
seize one of the vessels and sail for Cuba, 
whence they hoped to- bring back a force 
sufficient to overcome their hitherto successful 
general. All was ready for the desertion, when 
on the very night in the course of which the 
vessel was to sail, one of the number repented 
of the part he had taken and gave such in- 
formation that all the others were apprehended. 
Legal proceedings were instituted, two of the 
ring-leaders were sentenced to die, the pilot 
to lose his feet, and some others to be flogged. 
It was the age of superstition and barbarity. 
While the pilot who had agreed to conduct the 
vessel was condemned to lose both his feet, 
the leading instigator of the whole, the very 
head of the conspiracy was a priest ; and 
claiming the exemption from secular jurisdiction 
which Rome sought to establish everywhere in 
favor of her sworn vassals; always more sub- 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 99 

ject to her than to their own sovereigns or 
commanders, escaped without any punishment 
at all. 

Cortes was deeply affected by this circum- 
stance. He saw that there were those in his 
camp on whose constant fidelity he could not 
rely; and not without reason feared, that in 
cases of great difficulty they might produce ex- 
tensive disaffection. While means of escape 
were within reach, against attempts to escape 
he was not secure. Far-seeing, self-possessed, 
and daring, he determined to make their safety 
depend on their fidelity. He resolved to destroy 
the fleet which was now in the port a little to 
the north of Cempoalla. To that place he 
marched with his small army. He then pro- 
ceeded to the port with a few of his most devoted 
adherents. From the pilots, through their in- 
strumentality he obtained a gloomy report on 
the state of the vessels. Expressing his surprise 
and regret he ordered them to be dismantled 
and all that was valuable of sails, cordage, iron, 



100 CORTES. 

&c, to be brought ashore and the vessels them- 
selves to be sunk. Only one, a small one was 
allowed to remain. 

The measure he had taken was indeed a des- 
perate one — perhaps the boldest in the history, 
not only of a man whose life was distinguished 
by the boldness of his undertakings, but of the 
world. The greatest danger was yet to come. 
Even with his small army, all but himself would 
have called his prospect gloomy. Mexico was 
only to be won by battling with her myriads of 
soldiers, under the supreme command of one 
who held the lives of all his subjects in his hand ; 
and if defeated, the only hope of escape was in 
the fleet. That hope for him and his followers 
was now cut off. Nothing was before him but 
brilliant success, or disgraceful failure and a 
cruel death. But if his soldiers should abandon 
him where then would he be ? And for a 
time, it seemed as if his worst fears were to be 
realized. When the troops at Cempoalla heard 
of the destruction of the fleet they were seized 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 101 

with the deepest consternation. They felt them- 
selves left alone in a strange country, with 
forces likely to be arrayed against them to which 
their own numbers bore no comparison ; and 
from which, did they fail to subdue them, escape 
was no longer possible. Deep and loud mur- 
murs arose. " Their general," they said, " had 
led them like cattle to be butchered in the sham- 
bles." All seemed ready for open mutiny ; and 
when Cortes arrived among them it appeared 
as if his greatest peril was threatened by his 
own men. 

But his presence of mind did not forsake him. 
He had calculated all. and was prepared for all. 
He called them together and addressed them 
in tones of kindness and persuasion. The 
ships were unfit for service. In destroying them, 
his was the greatest sacrifice, for they were all 
he possessed. The troops were gainers ; for 
they who were kept on board while the vessels 
were afloat, a hundred able-bodied men, might 
now become their fellow-laborers on shore. Had 



102 CORTES. 

the fleet been saved, what profit would it have 
been to them ? If victorious they would not 
need it ; if defeated they would be too far in 
the interior to avail themselves of it as a refuge. 
Tliev had set their hands -to the work, and to 
look back would be ruin. All depended on 
persevering boldness. If they resolved to con- 
quer, they must conquer. To dread defeat was 
to invite it. " As for me," he concluded, " I 
have chosen my part, and will abide by it. If 
any shrink back, let them return. There is 
one vessel : it will carry them to Cuba. They 
can tell them there that they deserted their com- 
mander and comrades, and perhaps left them 
to perish. Or they may ingloriously wait till 
we return loaded with the spoils of the Aztecs." 
Cortes knew the men to whom he spoke. 
They were not mere military hirelings. The 
spirit of chivalry was still widely spread, and 
of the soldiers of Cortes there were few in w^hom 
it did not exist. The love of glory, indeed, was 
connected with the love of wealth ; but this 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 103 

was not the soul-debasing avarice of the miser. 
Blended with the other, one mighty passion 
was formed which looked to honor according 
to the Spanish conception of it — elevated po- 
sition connected with military fame, shining 
forth with a splendor which all should admire, 
and sustained by a commensurate opulence. The 
words of the commander fanned the fire whose 
unextinguished embers were to be found in every 
bosom. As the field of vision became filled 
vith prospects of fame and wealth, all that 
could excite their fears became dim and ob- 
scure and with their fears their resentments 
passed away. They still hoped to be the con- 
querors of the empire on the frontiers of which 
they stood ; and they plainly saw that for such 
an achievement only Cortes could be the efficient 
leader. Their enthusiasm, once rekindled, be- 
came more ardent for its late diminution ; and 
viewing his banner as that under which their 
march to victory was certain, the revulsion of 



104 



CORTES. 



their feeling, which their deep-seeing leader had 
anticipated, was instantly manifested, when they 
made the air ring with their shouts, " To Mexico ! 
To Mexico ! " 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE START FOR MEXICO — TLASCALA — SEVERE 
FIGHTING — VICTORY OF THE SPANIARDS — 
EMBASSIES FROM MONTEZUMA. 

/^"^ORTES now prepared in good earnest for 

^"^ carrying into execution his magnificent 

scheme. He was to be accompanied by four 

hundred foot-soldiers, fifteen horse and seven 

pieces of artillery. On these, as his comrades, 

his chief reliance was placed. But he had also 

thirteen hundred Indian warriors and about a 

thousand porters to assist in dragging the guns 

and carrying the baggage. Forty of the principal 

Totonacs he took, in reality as hostages, though 

they were of great service to him as guides 

105 



106 CORTES. 

as well as counsellors among the strange tribes 
whom he visited on his march. With this army 
he set out to brave the power of Montezuma 
and the well-trained multitudes under his com- 
mand. The remainder of -his forces were left 
at Villa Rica, the new town four leagues north 
of Cempoalla. Before he set out he addressed 
the Spaniards : they were so animated by what 
he said, and shared so thoroughly in his spirit 
of bold and romantic enterprise, that they ex- 
claimed as with one voice : " We are readj- to 
obey you. Our fortunes, for better or worse, 
are cast with yours." 

On the 16th of August, 1519, they commenced 
their march. Their road the first day, was across 
a plain, rich and beautiful with all the vegetable 
productions of the tropics, the gales loaded with 
perfumes, the groves filled with birds of 
splendid plumage, and insects whose wings glit- 
tered like diamonds in the rays of the sun. In 
the course of the second day they began to as- 
cend the eastern acclivity of the Cordilleras and 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 107 

at its close reached Xalapa, a town that has 
given its name to the well-known drug raised in 
its neighborhood. The temperature was already 
felt to be cooler, and the sight of trees which 
were likewise to be found in Europe gladdened 
the hearts of the travellers. One of the grandest 
prospects in nature was here spread around them. 
Behind was the rich plain across which they 
had passed, beyond which the ocean was just 
visible. Before them was the steep and rugged 
ascent with its dark belt of pines, up which 
they had to climb ; while to the right and left 
long lines of towering hills stretched away into 
the distance. Towards the south, too, they saw 
the gigantic Orizaba, with the greater part of 
its visible cone covered with snow. As ihej 
advanced, the Indians of the villages in their 
way, were always addressed through interpreters 
by the ecclesiastics of the party, on the great 
truths of Christianity ; and whenever it was al- 
lowed, a cross was erected. By these symbols 
their journey might be traced. Mistaken as 



108 CORTES. 

they were in many of their religious notions. 
and mingled as were the feelings which composed 
their zeal, and which often made its flames more 
ardent than clear and pure ; they never forgot 
that one of their most -cherished objects was 
the abolition of idolatry and the introduction 
of the knowledge of man's only God and Saviour. 
The difficulties of the ascent soon began. 
Their path lay through rocky defiles whose lofty 
sides almost shut out the light of day : and 
sometimes it wound up the steep side of some 
mountain which was as a wall on one hand while 
on the other was a precipice of fearful depth. 
the path itself being so narrow and often slop- 
ing, that a false step was easy, and certain de- 
struction the consequence of it. The vegetation 
similar to that of southern and even temperate 
Europe was disappearing, and the pine forests 
of the north were rising before them. The 
weather also seemed to be changing. For the 
sultry heat of the plains they had thankfully 
accepted the refreshing breezes of Xalapa : but 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 109 

they were now. as it were, hastening the ap- 
proach of the year's most inclement season and 
entering the domains of winter. In some places, 
where rocks and mountains appeared to have 
been cast into their wildest forms and positions by 
violent earthquakes and volcanoes, while they 
were shuddering with cold, at the bottom of a 
precipice three thousand feet beneath them they 
saw the glowing productions of tropical heat. 
After three days' toiling they emerged through 
another defile on a more open country and a 
more genial climate. 

Thev had now reached the great sheet of 
tableland which stretches for hundreds of miles 
along the crests of the Cordilleras, more than 
seven thousand feet above the level of the ocean, 
and soon approached what appeared to be a 
populous city. Its governor was tributary to 
Montezuma and boasted that he had twenty 
thousand vassals. A strong Mexican garrison 
was quartered in the place, and the Spaniards 
plainly saw that they were unwelcome gue^t-. 



110 COBTES. 

Cortes boasted of the greatness of his sover- 
eign, and the cacique replied in the same modes 
of speech. According to him, the emperor had 
under him thirty great vassals, each of whom 
commanded one hundred - thousand men. His 
revenues were said to be immense in proportion. 
More than twenty thousand captives taken in 
war were annually sacrificed to his gods. His 
capital stood in a lake in the centre of a 
spacious valley ; the cit}^ being connected with 
the mainland by means of causeways several 
miles long, on which were movable wooden 
bridges, which when lifted up prevented all com- 
munication. One spectacle which the Spaniards 
here witnessed filled them with horror. There 
were thirteen temples in the place ? and in one 
part of the suburbs an immense pile of the 
skulls of human victims, ranged in such order 
that the shuddering beholders were enabled to 
count them and reported their number as one 
hundred thousand. 

After remaining four or five days to recover 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. Ill 

from their fatigue the Spaniards again set out. 
They travelled through a broad and verdant 
valley watered by a noble stream, well wooded 
and thickly peopled, and soon came to a town 
well fortified, containing five or six thousand 
inhabitants, where they halted and met with a 
friendly reception. It was now necessary for 
Cortes to determine by what road he should 
enter the " Great Valley." At the last place he 
had been advised to go through Cholula, an an- 
cient city whose inhabitants were devoted to 
mechanical arts, and would be likely to receive 
him kindly ; but his Totonac friends described 
them as faithless, and recommended in prefer- 
ence that his route should be through Tlascala, 
as the republic had always maintained its inde- 
pendence and was on friendly terms with the 
Totonacs. The Tlascalans were bold and fear- 
less, but frank and noted for their fair dealing. 
He decided to march in this direction, and sent 
an embassy with presents, a message of court- 
eous friendliness and a request for permission 



112 CORTES. 

to pass through their country. He then rested 
his little army for three days and again resumed 
his march, taking all the precautions which would 
have been necessary in a country of known hos- 
tility. 

The Tlascalans belonged to the great Aztec 
family, and worshipped the same gods with the 
same bloody rites. Dwelling among the moun- 
tains which skirted the Mexican vallej* they had 
the usual qualities of mountaineers. They were 
in fact the Switzers of the country. They had 
fought many fierce battles with the sovereigns 
of Mexico, and some with Montezuma. Hith- 
erto they had been always victorious ; but they 
knew that were the emperor to put forth all his 
strength their ultimate success was not very 
probable. They lived in a state of preparation 
for war, and regarded Mexico as their natural, 
because their only, foe. The request of Cortes 
embarrassed them. Some were in his favor ; 
others, especially those who were most devoted 
to their religion opposed it : the one hoping 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 113 

most from Spanish power, the other dreading 
most from Mexican vengeance. An old chief 
advised stratagem. They had a large force near 
the eastern frontier commanded hy his son 
Xicotencatl. Let these attack the Spaniards. 
If victorious, the latter were in their power ; but 
if defeated the rulers could disavow the act of 
their general. The Cempoallan envoys were to 
be detained. 

Cortes in the meanwhile was advancing. 
He and his handful of cavalry were riding 
some distance in front, when suddenly the} r 
were assailed by several thousand Indians. 
Between such odds the contest was fearful. 
Two horses were slain ; a great loss, because a 
large proportion of the whole. The infantr} r 
at length came up and their musketry and 
bolts from their cross-bows astounded, and 
finally drove off the enemy. On September 
2d, the day but one after the fight, Cortes 
again proceeded. He was soon met by two of 
the Cempoallans with two Tlascalans, disavow- 



114 CORTES. 

ing the attack and proffering a friendly re- 
ception. With the Spaniards were now about 
three thousand native auxiliaries, who served 
at least in some degree to guard the little 
European band on its flanks. The other two 
Cempoallans met them before they had pro- 
ceeded far and warned them of another attack. 
In fact they almost directly saw a large body 
of armed Indians whom the general tried in 
vain to conciliate. They attacked the Spanish 
force with fury, and when obliged to retreat, 
retired slowly by the way of a narrow defile. 
They were followed with an eagerness which 
neglected prudence. Turning the last angle of 
the glen and emerging nearly into the open 
countiy, they saw before them not fewer than 
one hundred thousand men fully armed, with 
one large standard waving loftily above the 
banners of the host, showing that this was the 
grand Tiascalan army commanded by Xicoten- 
catl. The attack of the Indians was fiercely 
resolute ; but the Spaniards were all steel-clad, 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO, 115 

and though slowly, yet step by step compelled 
their foes to recede ; their allies also doing 
good service. 

At length the defile was completely passed, 
and in the open country the horsemen could 
act with greater freedom and power and the 
artillery be brought to bear from more advan- 
tageous positions. The latter filled them with 
terror. The flashes, the reports, the rolling 
smoke, of themselves spread alarm and con- 
fusion; but when they observed that this 
thunder sent death into their ranks and from 
a distance cut down such multitudes, they 
could resist no longer ; and about an hour 
before sunset the chief withdrew his forces in 
good order. The troops after rejoicing a while 
in their victory sought repose ; but to Cortes 
it was an anxious night. Such resistance he 
had never anticipated ; and though as yet none 
of his men had been slain he felt that a suc- 
cession of such battles must eventually be 
ruinous. His desire was if possible to win the 



116 CORTES. 

Tlascalans as allies, seeing how much assistance 
such fearless warriors might render him in act- 
ing against the mercenaries of Montezuma. 
Allowing the whole of the next day for repose, 
the day after he sent .two chiefs who had 
been made prisoners to propose a cessation of 
hostilities and a friendly interview. 

In the meantime, he and the horsemen with 
some of the light troops made an excursion 
into the neighborhood. To those who received 
them kindly he behaved with kindness; but 
where he was resisted he laid the whole 
country around waste. He returned with 
much forage and provision and several hundred 
captives. To these he expressed his sorrow for 
the war and his wish for friendship. His ob- 
ject was to impress the country with a con- 
viction of his amicable intentions on the one 
hand and his power on the other. 

His envoys soon returned bearing a message 
of fierce defiance from Xicotencatl. The Span- 
iards might go to Tlascala as soon as they 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 117 

pleased ; and when there, their flesh should be 
hewn from their bodies and offered to the 
gods. If they remained in their own quarters 
he would pay them a visit the next day. 
This did not terrify the Europeans. Their 
trust was not so much in numbers as in indi- 
vidual valor; recollecting too, that they were 
cased in armor, and therefore incomparably 
less liable to injury from Indian weapons than 
the Indians were from theirs. Then there was 
the dreaded artillery, and they knew the 
horses were scarcely less dreaded. Nor did 
they forget that it was with them victory or 
death. And if they overcame Tlascala and 
could yet convert a foe into a friend, the tid- 
ings would do much towards the attainment 
of their ultimate object. Retreat was impos- 
sible. Victory would bring wealth and glory. 
Nor must their religious enthusiasm be for- 
gotten. If they were mistaken they were sin- 
cere. Their zeal was not pure, but it was 
opposed to what was not onlj* erroneous but 



118 CORTES. 

abominable. With them might be error min- 
gling with truth: with their foes was not 
only error unenlightened by a gleam of truth, 
but a horrid barbarism incapable of improve- 
ment, and of which the ■ certain tendency was 
the destruction of the partial civilization that 
existed ; the gradual transformation of the 
whole race into a diminished horde of savages 
with whom cunning and fraud would be 
wisdom ; the total obliteration of natural af- 
fection and sympathy, and its replacement by 
delight in torture and murder, as the highest 
heroism. They did acknowledge the Lord of 
the whole earth, and with them was the 
only Name by which men are to be saved; 
their enemies not only did not worship the 
true God, did bow down to imaginary deities, 
but they worshipped devils by rites which 
only devils could have inspired, and which 
tended to make the worshippers altogether 
like them whom they worshipped. 

As Cortes saw that a battle could not be 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 119 

avoided, he resolved, at once to animate his 
men and intimidate the enemy, to march out 
and meet them. He directed the horsemen to 
charge at half speed aiming to hit the face 
with their lances, the infantry rather to cut 
than thrust, while the artillery, muskets and 
cross-bows were so to be used as that there 
should be no interruption to the firing. He 
had not gone far when he saw the Tlascalan 
army. It was a sight to have appalled any 
others. Over a plain six miles square it was 
drawn up, seeming to fill the whole space. 
Their weapons were slings, bows, javelins and 
darts. Instead of swords they had a hard 
wooden staff, three feet and a half long in 
which were inserted sharp blade-like pieces of 
stone. Many wore a defensive covering of 
thick quilted cotton, with helmets and buck- 
lers of similar material. These were the war- 
riors with whom the Spaniards were now to 
grapple in what might almost be called their 
first pitched battle. The disproportion was 



120 CORTES. 

beyond comparison ; but they knew that if 
they won this field, it would be the prelude 
of a series of victories which would secure for 
them the glorious prize which they had resolved 
to obtain or die. 

On the morning of the 5th of September, 1519, 
the heroic general led his men to the attack. 
They were met by a shower of arrows and 
stones ; but they marched on till near enough 
to deliver their fire with effect. They then 
poured into the vast mass a ceaseless shower 
of shot, eveiy one of which told. The ranks 
were thinned faster than they could be supplied, 
and the men fell faster than their comrades, 
according to established custom, could drag 
their bodies from the field. At first they re- 
mained still, as if petrified. Roused at length 
by their chiefs, they rushed down on the Span- 
iards with hideous yells, in numbers sufficient 
to overwhelm them, and with bodily power 
enough to bear them down. This was the 
awful crisis for the Spaniards. If this could 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 121 

be withstood, their armor would throw back 
the weapons cast from a distance, their keen 
swords and lances would penetrate the defen- 
sive armor, while the bolts from their cross- 
bows, and especially the cannon-balls and mus- 
ket-shot, sooner or later must so destroy, terrify. 
and enfeeble, that a final charge would drive 
them from the field. 

Against the Tlascalan charge it seemed for 
a time that it was vain to attempt to stand, 
and once the ranks began to waver. But Cortes 
rode from man to man, inspiriting them by 
word and example. Here the knightly cavalry 
charged, carrying all before them while mus- 
kets and cannon with no intermission, poured 
in their deadly fire on masses which by size 
and nearness presented a certain mark, and cut 
them down by hundreds. Their very numbers, 
where the greatest danger lay, operated event- 
ually to the safety of the Spaniards. The horse- 
men kept charging those who sought to come 
to the rear ; aud multitudes pressing towards 



122 COBTES. 

what was almost a point in comparison with 
their own extended line, created a confusion 
which prevented them from hurling themselves 
on the Spaniards in mass. They knew no 
other way of charging than in a mingled crowd, 
and therefore, when the first fury of their 
attack was met and repelled, Cortes saw that 
with patience and firmness, though the battle 
might be continued for hours, the victory was 
sure to be his. 

When the conflict had lasted some hours, 
one of the chieftains, whom Xicotencatl had of- 
fended, resolved to endure the waste of life no 
longer, and with another whom he persuaded 
to follow his example led their vassals, originally 
twenty thousand in number from the field. 
The Tlascalan commander felt he could no longer 
maintain his ground and withdrew the remains 
of his army. The Spaniards were in no con- 
dition to follow them. A few had been slain, 
many were wounded, and so were all their 
horses. After the repose of the night, Cortes, 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 123 

more wishful than ever for peace and alliance, 
sent another message. One of the leading rulers 
advised compliance ; but he was overruled by 
the war-party, with the defeated general at 
their head, stimulated by the priests. The 
Indians were never accustomed to fight bv night ; 
but they were now told that the white men were 
the children of the sun, and that in his absence 
their superior power would fail. 

A powerful night-attack was therefore resolved 
upon, and such secrecy was observed that no 
notice reached the Spaniards. The night came. 
With the utmost stealth the Indians drew nigh 
expecting to find an easy prey ; but Cortes 
preserved all the vigilance of European disci- 
pline. Good watch was kept and the men slept 
ready to fly to arms as soon as they awoke. 
The moon shone brightly and the wakeful sen- 
tinel was soon aware of the intention of the foe. 
He gave the alarm, and in a few minutes the 
Spaniards were all ready for the combat, and 
Cortes resolved to meet his enemies before they 



124 CORTES. 

reached the camp. The Indians, anticipating 
full success were cautiously approaching, when 
they were surprised in their turn. They had 
reached the bottom of the hill on which the 
Spaniards were encamped, when suddenly the 
whole body rushed down on them, shouting 
their battle-cry and hasting to the attack. 
After a feeble discharge of arrows the Indians 
fled in confusion, the Spaniards following and 
slaying them without mercy. The field was 
covered with the slain. 

Another embassy, proffering the same terms 
was sent to Tlascala, and its rulers now seemed 
inclined to agree to them ; but Xicotencatl 
intercepted the messengers on their return, and 
for a day or two Cortes remained in ignorance 
of the result. He employed the time in ex- 
cursions in which he made the Spanish power 
to be felt. An embassy at length arrived de- 
siring an accommodation, and stating that the 
chief himself would shortly come to arrange it. 
When the messengers departed they left a numl er 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 125 

of their attendants behind. Marina soon dis- 
covered that they were spies, left to discover 
all the particulars which might be serviceable 
in another nio;ht attack. Cortes ordered their 
arrest, their hands were cut off, and they were 
sent back to tell the Tlascalans, that, come when 
they would, the Spaniards were always prepared 
for them. The spectacle filled the Indians with 
horror. Their general thought that the Spaniards 
knew everything : and when his soldiers refused 
to fight any longer he lost his confidence, and 
yielded to those who desired peace. 

He soon after visited Cortes, who received him 
with the courtesy due to his patriotism and 
bravery. The presents that were brought were 
small; but the humbled chief said the Tlascalans 
were poor, and Cortes said that as coming from 
them he valued it more than had it been a house 
full of gold. He accepted them as vassals of the 
king, his master, assuring them of support if 
they were faithful, and of vengence if they 
proved false. To add to his difficulties some of 



126 CORTES. 

the old Velasquez faction began again to com- 
plain ; but he was prepared. He expostulated 
with them, and appealing to the others, the ma- 
jority declared they would never abandon him, 
and the malcontents slunk away in confusion. 
Enemies or unfaithful friends he seemed to have 
equally the power to subdue. 

An embassy now arrived from Montezuma, 
w T ho had, by his emissaries, watched the Spaniards 
ascending the dangerous steeps and defiles of 
the Cordilleras ; and when he heard of the Tlas- 
calan opposition, had hoped they would have 
been destroyed on the road. But when he re- 
ceived the tidings that in several desperate con- 
flicts they had swept their enemies like dust 
before them, his superstitious alarm revived 
and he sent them a munificent present, but de- 
clined to receive them, as he could not answer 
for their safety in his capital. To the Indians, 
this intimation of his despotic will would have 
been sufficient: Cortes w r as only made more 
resolute to proceed. He saw, too, with satisfac- 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 127 

tion the strong enmity between the Aztecs and 
the Tlascalans. He anticipated from it much 
success for the future. He was yet six leagues 
from the chief city of Tlascala ; but on the 23rd 
of September he made his triumphal entry 
there. For some time he remained carrying on 
negotiations with the chiefs. He wished, too, 
to proceed at once with the work of conversion ; 
but he found them immovable and would have 
proceeded forthwith to violence, but was dis- 
suaded by his principal ecclesiastic, Olmedo, 
one of the best of the missionaries sent to the 
New World. He shrank from no toil, no 
sacrifice, for the benefit of the benighted heathen, 
whose conversion he sought by argument, not 
violence; and was willing to wait for the slower 
but surer results of reason, employed as he 
knew in opposition to wicked error, and in 
favor of pure and benevolent truth. Several 
of the daughters of the principal chiefs, among 
them that of Xicotencatl, were baptized and 



128 CORTES. 

married to some of the leading Spanish cavaliers. 
Their descendants afterwards intermarried with 
some of the noblest families of Castile. 

During the progress of these events another 
embassy arrived from the capital, which the 
Spaniards, to whom a magnificent donation was 
again sent, were now invited to visit. His 
new friends, aware of the power of Montezuma, 
entreated him not to go, assuring him that the 
emperor was as treacherous as he was mighty. 
Finding him resolved, they dissuaded him from 
taking Cholula in his route, because they said 
its inhabitants were only the tools of the em- 
peror. But he felt that he had gone too far to 
recede, and, therefore, knowing that the boldest 
measures were the safest, he sent to the Cholulans 
requiring an assurance of their submission, and 
having received it prepared for departure. The 
Spaniards had been six weeks in the territory 
and three of these in the city of the Tlascalans. 
Their desperate hostility had been overcome and 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 129 

they were converted into fast friends and allies. 
Cortes was beginning to see the true weakness 
of the Mexican empire and was prepared to 
take full advantage of it. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CHOLULA, THE S A CUED CITY — MEDITATED AT- 
TACK ON THE SPANIARDS FRUSTRATED — 
MARCH CONTINUED — CITY OF MEXICO AND 
THE ROYAL RESIDENCE. 



/^^HOLULA was the sacred city of the Mex- 

^^ icans. It lay about six leagues south of 

Tlascala, and twenty south-east of the capital. 

Cortes said it contained twenty thousand houses. 

The god Quetzalcoatl was said to have spent 

twenty years here, teaching the inhabitants the 

arts of civilization. In his honor the celebrated 

mound was raised and still exists, the most 

colossal monument of New Spain. It had the 

form common to the temples of the country, 

130 



y& 




CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 133 

a truncated pyramid; with sides facing the 
four cardinal points and divided into the same 
number of terraces- Its base is one thousand 
four hundred and twenty-three feet ; its height 
one hundred and seventy-seven. The square 
base includes twenty-four acres ; the platform 
on its summit one. On this stood a sumptuous 
temple with an image of the god. Many other 
temples were in the city, which was usually 
thronged with pilgrim devotees. The mild 
spirit attributed to the " god of the air " no 
longer breathed in the religion of the place. 
The Aztec bloody rites were fully established, and 
not fewer than six thousand human victims 
were sacrificed annually. To this city Cortes 
marched his army increased by about six thou- 
sand Tlascalan warriors, who, not on friendly 
terms with the Cholulans, encamped without, 
while Cortes took up his residence with his 
own soldiers within. 

At first all seemed friendly to him ; but on 
the arrival of some Mexican nobles they became 



134 CORTES. 

reserved and furnished very srinred supplies. 
His Ceinpoallan allies also told him they had 
seen circumstances r .vl_:.;; betokened a : :-.". 

.".ok. Mariana proved to be the means of their 
safety. The wife of one -of the Caeioues be- 
came strongly attached to her, and on visiting 
her one day. invited her to shun the fate of the 
Spaniards by coming to hex house. The anxious 
female fearing that evil was intended, seemed 
to acquiesce and thus ascertained the v. hole 
scheme. As the Spaniards marched out and 
were entangled in the streets, the Cholnlans were 
suddenly to fall on them ; when a strong Mexi- 
can force not far distant, was to come and com- 
plete the work. Some of the p:is- :.ers were to 
reserved for sacrifice at Cholula, the others 

:e to be taken to Mexico. Montezuma had 
consulted hi- priests and they had told him that 
at Cholula his enemies would be vanquished. 
Hence his change of plan. Cortes fixed on his. 
His o: osulted: they agreed that the 

appearance of weakness would be ruinous, 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 135 

that they must now, as they had gone so far, 
strike at once a decisive blow. He fixed on 
his measures and instantly prepared for their 
execution. 

The Spaniards were quartered in one of the 
large temples and the buildings connected with 
it. He gave out that he should march the next 
day. In the evening he sent for the ambassa- 
dors ; told t^em he had discovered their plot, 
and must march against their master as an 
enemy. They laid the whole blame on the 
Cholulans. He affected to believe them : but 
said he must act so as to convince the whole 
country that the Spaniards were not to be cir- 
cumvented, and that thus he would punish 
those who were both the emperor's enemies 
and his own. Through the live-long night the 
Spaniards kept ready for action. The morning 
dawned. Cortes was already on horseback 
directing his little band. The strength of his 
forces he drew up in the square court of the 
temple, surrounded by a high wall and some 



136 CORTES. 

houses. At the three gates of entrance he 
placed a strong guard ; and the remainder of 
his troops were fixed with the heavy artillery, 
so as to guard every avenue of approach. 
Orders had been sent to the Tiascalans to 
march into the city at a concerted signal. 

He then sent for the Cholulan caciques to 
bring with them a large number of persons to 
assist in bearing his luggage. All these were 
brought into the court, and the gates were 
closed. From an elevated position the General 
told them of the discovery of the plot, and 
his resolution to punish them for their treach- 
ery. Thunder-struck, they sought to lay the 
blame on Montezuma. Still more indignant he 
told them this should not avail them, and 
that all the country should ring with the pun- 
ishment of their faithless cruelty. He gave 
the command and the massacre began, nor 
ceased while one was seen alive. The screams 
of their friends drew the other inhabitants to 
their rescue, and the troops without instantly 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 137 

fell upon them. The Tlascalans too. entered 

the city, and their long-cherished hatred burst 
forth in fury as they joined in the dreadful 
employment. 

It was not till it had lasted some hours, 
when thousands had been slain, the houses and 
temples pillaged, and large numbers seized for 
slavery, that Cortes ordered the work of 
slaughter to cease. The Spaniards felt no com- 
punction. They were only slaying pagans, and 
pagans who had planned their total destruction. 
The only gleam of light in this dark proceeding 
is that Cortes strictly forbade all violence to 
women and children. Indeed, throughout his 
whole course, stern and relentless as he was 
when he believed the necessities of war called 
him to be so, all private depredations were 
prohibited, and whoever was found guilty of 
any such act was punished with a prompt 
severity. It was his policy to show himself a 
kind friend but a terrible foe. 

Cortes continued some davs longer at Cho- 



138 CORTES. 

lula ; and though he could produce no religious 
change there he liberated all the captives who 
were destined for sacrifice. In the meantime, 
the news spread and the anticipated effect 
followed. The whole country was intimidated. 
The caciques of many towns sent to proffer 
their allegiance; their messengers bringing pres- 
ents of great value. Montezuma trembled on 
his throne and saw the whole fabric of his 
empire loosened. Whole hecatombs of illus- 
trious victims were sacrificed ; but the priests 
dared no longer give any cheering response. 
He sent envoys with presents as usual, charg- 
ing the whole guilt of the late conspiracy on 
the Cholulans, and congratulating the Span- 
iards on their deliverance and the punishment 
of their foes. 

Just before he entered on the final stage of 
his progress his Cempoallan allies requested to 
be dismissed to their homes. Their habitual 
dread of the Aztec emperor was too strong to 
be overcome, and they dared not advance any 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 139 

farther. They had served the general with 
courage and fidelity, and much as he regretted 
their request he could not refuse to grant it. 
He liberally rewarded their services with arti- 
cles which they could esteem more than the 
Spaniards did, and sent by letters to Juan de 
Escalante, his lieutenant at Villa Rica, urging 
him to be ever on his guard, especially against 
any interference from Cuba, and to treat the 
Totonacs with great favor on account of the 
services they had rendered. He famished him 
also with a full account of his proceedings. 

Everything being arranged, the march to 
Mexico was commenced. Between Cholula and 
the capital was the high sierra (" mountain- 
ridge ") which separates the great plateau 
( " table-land " ) of Mexico from that of Puebla 
on the south. As he advanced he found con- 
tinual reason for encouragement in the evi- 
deuces of dislike to the imperial rule. The 
dominion that is founded only on fear secures 
obedience no longer than it has power to 



140 CORTES. 

command it. He was warned to be on his 
guard, and told that he would find the direct 
road blocked up ; the other being one in which 
they might be attacked with the greatest ad- 
vantage. They found the* statement to be cor- 
rect. The Aztec envoys whom Cortes kept 
with him, made many excuses ; but he ordered 
the obstacles to be at once removed. Their 
way led them between two of the highest moun- 
tains on the northern continent — Popocatapetl 
(the "hill that smokes"), and Iztaccihuatl (the 
" white woman," from its bright surface of snow), 
the former of which is 17,852 feet above the 
level of the sea, the latter nearly as high. 
Travelling up the lofty ridges, they suffered 
most severely from cold. 

After a few clays' march they reached the 
crest of the mountains ; and turning round an 
angle of the defile by which they had come, a 
view was before them which seemed for the mo- 
ment to reward them for all their labors, toil, 
and sufferings. Spreading beneath, before, and 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 141 

on either hand, was the great valley of Mexico, 
sublime in its natural form, lovely from the 
tokens it presented of rich cultivation by its 
numerous inhabitants. It was a prospect of life 
and fertility, possessing all the adjuncts of hill 
and plain, wood, water, buildings, fields, gar- 
dens full of richly colored flowers necessary to 
form a picture of exquisite beauty. In the 
centre were the great lakes, their borders thickly 
studded with towns and hamlets, and in the 
midst the metropolitan city, the Venice of the 
Aztecs with her white towers and pyramidal 
temples. The whole valley was girt round by 
a dark belt of pophyry ; but so great was its 
extent that the more distant parts of the barrier 
were only even indistinctly visible, though the 
superior clearness of the atmosphere in such a 
climate and at such an elevation widely ex- 
tended the sphere of vision. 

But to the Spaniards it was more than splen- 
did scenery. It was the goal to which they 
had so long been tending, and to arrive at 



142 CORTES. 

which they had crossed the wide ocean, toiled 
up the steep and rough ascent from the coast, 
and fought their way through so many foes. 
It was to them as another " promised land." 
So splendid indeed was the view that the more 
timid were actually alarmed by it. What they 
could see, they said, displayed a power with which 
they could never be able to cope ; and they 
demanded to be led back to the coast. Not 
so with the general. He knew his own re- 
sources. He trusted in his leaders, who were, 
he knew, like-minded with himself ; and in 
the larger part of his troops. He remem- 
bered what had been done, and took the past 
as the pledge of the future. Avarice and am- 
bition alike animated him, and with indomitable 
resolution he sought successfully, by promises 
and threats, to confirm the wavering and win 
the disaffected. Besides he was now aware that 
behind the glittering veil of power there were 
the unmistakable signs of weakness. He had 
penetrated into the true character of Montezuma \ 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 143 

and now that the prize was full before him, 
he had the unmingled, undisturbed conviction 
of the certainty of its attainment. 

Montezuma was all the while a prey to the 
most dismal apprehensions. The dreaded foes, 
and as he believed, the destined subverters of 
his empire, were at hand. The mountain bar- 
rier had been ascended. Hosts of valiant ene- 
mies had been subdued. Secret conspiracies 
had more than failed : their issues had turned 
against himself. The last wall of rock had 
been forced. The foot of the stranger stood 
on his garden plain. He had hoped to the last ; 
but he could hope no longer. In his despair 
he shut himself up in his palace and refused 
food. He consulted his oracles : but though he 
sought to propitiate them by streams of blood. 
they were dumb. He called his councillors, but 
their advices differed. One recommended that 
the Spaniards should be received courteous] 
another that he should drive back the invaders 
from his capital, or die in its defence. He re- 



144 CORTES. 



* 



solved to send a last embassy to the Spanish 
camp, welcoming them to Mexico. 

The ambassador was his nephew Cacaina, 
the young King of Tezcuco. He met the army 
as it was cautiously advancing, and the Span- 
iards, for the first time, saw the obsequious ho- 
mage paid even to the dependent monarchs of 
the country. By Cortes he was received with 
the dignified courtesy of a high-minded Cas- 
tilian cavalier, who felt — without any of the in- 
flation of a narrow vanity : for. had there been 
in Cortes any tendency to such a character, his- 
tory would never have had to record his name 
as the conqueror of Mexico — that he was rais- 
ing himself to an equalit} 7 with the proudest 
nobles of his own land. When Cacama had 
left him he pursued his way. The teeming 
population thronged to gaze on the wonderful 
strangers ; while the Spaniards gazed with un- 
mingled admiration on scenes where everything 
was new, and all was beautiful. Their feelings 
were heightened when they came to the lake. 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 145 

Numberless houses, partly concealed and yet 
adorned by richly verdant foliage, studded its 
banks. They beheld with astonishment garden- 
islets, which the ingenuity of the natives had 
constructed to float on its waters, and which 
were covered with flowers of all hues, form- 
ing variegated parterres, supplying the abundant 
means of gratifying one of the most strongly- 
marked characteristics of the nation — a love of 
brilliant colors, equally in the dyes which tinct- 
ured their cotton textures, the plumage of birds, 
and flowers. 

They had now to march along the causeway 
about five miles in length, which divided the 
south-eastern lake — or more properly, a portion 
of the entire lake, which, though bearing three 
names, was as to its waters only one ; irregular 
in its form, and capable of artificial division into 
three parts, each having a separate name. This 
causeway was a solid structure of stone and lime, 
six or eight feet wide at its narrowest part, 
and in others admitting eight horsemen to ride 



146 CORTES. 

abreast. As they marched onward the}" saw 
hundreds of small Indian boats swiftly darting' 
across the lake, bearing parties of pleasure, or 
carrying to the capital provisions and flowers. 
or returning home. Leaving the causeway, they 
came to the isthmus between Chalco. the lake 
they had crossed, and Tezcuco, that on which 
the capital was erected. Here stood the royal 
residence of Iztapalapan, around which were 
twelve or fourteen thousand houses, forming a 
splendid city, governed by Cuitlahua. brother of 
the emperor, who received Cortes into the palace. 
to which he had invited several nobles of the 
royal house to meet him. 

The palace was a handsome structure, with 
spacious apartments, richly furnished according 
to the manner of the country, the walls being 
tapestried with cottons stained with brilliant 
colors. The gardens were large, laid out in 
regular squares and beautifully adorned by trel- 
lises supporting creepers and aromatic shrubs, 
stocked with fruit-trees of great variety, and 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 149 

planted with all the varieties of flowers which the 
country produced. The aviary, too, was large 
and filled with numerous species of birds noted 
for sweetness of song or for beauty and bril- 
liancy of plumage. Had Cortes been only a 
visitor, travelling to see all that was to be dis- 
covered, he might have paused here as having 
found objects, with the sight of which, the eye 
could never be fatigued. He saw and admired. 
Did no melancholy feeling arise when he thought 
how soon all this splendor was to be darkened ? 
But even if the motives which impelled him 
were so sternly selfish, he saw behind this glit- 
tering show a religion of human butchery, and 
a people in whom familiarity with blood and 
priestly murder deadened the sympathies of the 
heart and debased the entire character. If he 
felt that he came to subvert a throne, he felt 
also that he came to subvert a horrid idolatry ; 
and he might be permitted to hope (for the 
bigotry and ignorance of superstition had not 
yet accomplished the deterioration of Spain), 



150 CORTES. 

that, under a Christian and European dynasty, 
the people would be instructed and elevated, 
and the whole country blessed with a permanent 
and far nobler prosperity. There would be fewer 
flowers, perhaps, but more men. 

And this last remark reminds us of the task 
that now lies before us, and which we must 
hasten to fulfil. We must dismiss the gorgeous 
scenes which first met the view of the Spaniards 
in Mexico for the narration of the most stirring 
events. Not to have adverted to those scenes 
would have left our relation imperfect on points 
of great interest ; but it will not henceforth be 
necessary to refer to them. It will be suffi- 
cient to say that in Mexico and the palace of 
Montezuma, the Spanish general witnessed a 
splendor, which if similar in kind, was far sur- 
passing in degree, what he had previously be- 
held. 

We must now come to the object which, 
with few intervals, occupied his mind. Amidst 
all that he saw, his attention was fixed only 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 151 

on the brilliant and apparently powerful, but 
really tottering, 'throne of the unhappy Mon- 
tezuma, against which the bolts were alreachr 
aimed that so soon accomplished its subversion. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CORTES ENTERS THE CITY — THE GREAT TEM- 
PLE. — THE AZTEC RELIGION — MONTEZUMA 
PLACED IN FETTERS — DEFEAT OF NARVAEZ 
— RISING OF THE MEXICANS. 

^vN the 18th of February, 1519, Cortes sailed 
^-^ from Cuba. After visiting Yucatan and 
Tabasco, on the 21st of April he landed on 
Mexican ground where now stands the modern 
city of Vera Cruz.* On the 8th of November 
in the same year he entered the capital of the 
Aztec empire. In the procession, Cortes and 



* The first Vera Cruz stood a little south of Cempoalla near the 
river De Antigua. The second was near the port his captains had 
found, some miles to the north of Cempoalla. It is mostly called 
Villa Rica. 

152 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 153 

his horsemen came first; then the infantry, 
composed of men whose experience and labors 
for the preceding nine months entitled them 
already to be considered as veterans ; the bag- 
gage in the centre, while the Tlascalan warriors 
formed the rear. The whole number scarcely 
amounted to seven thousand, of which not quite 
four hundred were Spaniards. Montezuma with 
a glittering retinue met them at the entrance 
of the city. He was at this time about forty 
years of age, tall and thin, but well made. He 
moved with dignity, and his whole demeanor, 
tempered by an expression of kindness, was 
worthy of a great prince. He met his guest 
with princely courtesy and welcomed him to 
his capital. After the interchange of civilities, 
he appointed his brother to convey the Span- 
iards to their residence. He was then borne off 
in his litter amidst prostrate crowds. As the 
little band moved to their quarters, they came 
to a broad area in which stood the huge pile. 
second in size and sanctity to that of Cholula, 



154 CORTES. 

dedicated to the patron war-god of the empire. 
Near this stood a low range of stone buildings 
spreading over a wide extent of ground, the 
palace of Axayacatl, Montezuma's father, built 
by him fifty years previously. The monarch 
had arrived there first and was in the court-yard 
waiting to receive them. 6> This palace belongs 
to you and your brethren, Malinche " (the epithet 
by which he always addressed Cortes); "take 
the rest you need after your fatigues, and in 
a little while I will visit you again/' Thus 
anxiously did he perform the rites of hospitality. 
How were they repaid ? We do not forget the 
darker shades of his character, but remember that 
they were cast there by the execrable supersti- 
tion which he had been taught to consider as 
sacred, and which made even blood-shedding a 
duty. Would not the man have been amiable, 
had not the worshipper been hardened by the 
constant spectacle of the wholesale slaughter 
of his fellow-creatures ? 

Cortes soon found that the gigantic pile in 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 165 

which he had to dwell was admirably calculated 
for the purpose of defence and he lost no time 
in taking all necessary precautions. He fixed 
sentinels, planted his cannon and distributed 
his troops as if it had been a garrisoned fortress 
in Europe about to be besieged by a powerful 
enemy. He not only provided against actual 
danger, but adopted measures for the detection 
of its slightest approach. Early in the even- 
ing the emperor again visited them; and on 
this, as on so many other occasions, the services 
of Marina were invaluable. After his depar- 
ture, the Spaniards celebrated their arrival after 
the European military fashion by a general dis- 
charge of their artillery. Policy, likewise, dic- 
tated this. The flame, the smoke, the sulphu- 
reous stench, the noise shaking the buildings by 
its reverberations, reminded the inhabitants of 
the explosions of their great volcano, impressing 
them with the conviction of the power of their 
guests and filling them with superstitious ter- 
ror. On the following morning Cortes, accom- 



156 CORTES. 

panied by four of his officers and a small guard, 
returned the emperor's visit at his palace. In 
the course of the interview, the subject which 
he never forgot — the Christian faith, together 
with the falsehood and evil ■ of every system of 
idolatry — was introduced : as might be expected 
however, with little effect. 

Before the wise and skilful commander could 
settle on any plan of operations, it was necessary 
that he should make himself perfectly acquainted 
with the localities of the city and neighborhood. 
Permission to make the requisite visits and 
excursions was asked and readily given. Among 
the objects which he saw, none fixed his gaze 
more than the great temple. It had five stories 
and its terraces were so constructed, that they 
who visited the topmost story had to go four 
times around the building. This caused a very 
imposing effect in religious ceremonials, when 
the pompous procession of the priests, with their 
wild minstrelsy, went sweeping around the huge 
sides of the pyramid, ascending higher and higher 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 159 

until they reached the summit in the view of 
gazing multitudes. To the summit Cortes went. 
He found it a vast area paved with broad square 
stones. A large block of Jasper stood there, 
the peculiar shape of which showed it to be the 
stone on which the bodies of the victims were 
stretched for sacrifice. Its convex surface was 
contrived with savage ingenuity to raise the 
breast, and enable the priests more easily to cut 
open the chest for the removal of the heart. At 
the other end of the area were the two towers 
of three stories, in some of which were images 
of their gods : and before each stood an altar 
with fire kept always burning, as its extinc- 
tion was ominous of fearful evil to the empire. 
On the area was also a huo;e cvlindrical drum 
of serpent-skins, struck only on extraordinary 
occasions, when it sent forth a melancholy sound 
that might be heard for miles. 

Cortes was also admitted to behold the shrines 
of the gods. The principal one was that in 
which stood the colossal image of Huitzilopot- 



160 COKTES. 

chli, the Aztec tutelary war-god deity. His 
countenance was distorted into hideous linea- 
ments : in his right hand he held a bow, and 
in his left a bunch of arrows. The hugh folds 
of a serpent consisting of pearls and precious 
stones were coiled around his waist. On his 
left foot were the delicate feathers of the hum- 
ming-bird ; which gave its name to this dread 
deity. A chain of gold and silver hearts, al- 
ternately, was suspended round the neck. But 
emblems were not needed to exhibit the sacri- 
fices in which he was supposed most to de- 
light ; for this was unequivocally shown by 
three human hearts lying before him on the 
altar, almost palpitating still, and evincing that 
they were only recently torn from the victims by 
the warm steam that yet arose from them. The 
walls were stained with gore, and the stench 
was not less intolerable than that of a Euro- 
pean slaughter-house. The other temples of 
the city he also visited. 

Another structure exhibited to them the hor- 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 161 

rible character of the Aztec religion. It was 
a vast pyramidal tumulus composed of skulls 
placed in order, belonging to the victims who 
had perished on the stone of sacrifice. There 
were more than one hundred and thirty thou- 
sand ! It would be injustice to Cortes not to 
suppose that he was as sincerely as he was 
strongly moved by these sights. However mis- 
taken he might be as to the true nature of 
his zeal, zeal it was, and zeal for truth 
against falsehood and the most demoralizing in- 
humanity. That the means he employed for 
their abolition were often wrong, no believer 
in the justice and benevolence of Christianity 
can deny ; but he was not more decidedly 
drawn onwards in his purpose by the sight of 
the wealth and honors of Mexico than he was 
by that of these sickening spectacles of infernal 
barbarity. The same day specimens of both 
were afforded. Concealed rooms were discov- 
ered in the Spanish quarters, in which were 
some of the treasures which there had not been 



162 CORTES. 

time to remove. " It seemed to me," said one 
of the spectators, " as if all the treasures of 
the world were collected there." 

It was now time that the general should 
decide on his plans. To retreat would not 
only be to expose them to the utmost danger, 
but to cover them with ridicule at home, even 
if punishment were not inflicted on them. 
After a week of anxiety, he took counsel with 
his usual advisers and proposed to them an 
expedient, as daring as their position was 
critical. It was to secure the person of Mon- 
tezuma, and to employ him as an instrument 
of governing the empire until they could trans- 
fer it to themselves. A pretext was readily 
found. An Indian tribe near the coast, in al- 
liance with the Spaniards, had been attacked by 
some Mexican forces, and though the latter, by 
the aid of the Europeans, were defeated, yet 
the lieutenant of Cortes was slain. At an in- 
terview with the emperor this was charged 
upon him ; and when he denied it, he was re- 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 163 

quired, as a proof of his innocence, to accom- 
pany the Spaniards to their quarters and take 
up his residence with them. He indignantly re- 
fused and only yielded when sternly threatened 
with force ; for Cortes had taken care that a 
sufficient number of his boldest men in full 
armor should be present. He was removed in 
his usual litter. He was directed to order the 
attendance of the cacique who had attacked the 
Indians. When the unhappy man arrived, he de- 
clared that he had acted in obedience to the royal 
commands. The Spaniards condemned him to be 
burned alive. While the execution was proceed- 
ing, Cortes advanced to the height of his audac- 
ity by directing Montezuma to be fettered, as a 
principal in proceedings which had occasioned 
the death of a Spaniard. The unhappy monarch 
was speechless under this extremity of insult. 
Moans which he could not suppress declared 
the bitter anguish of his spirit. He felt that he 
was king no longer, and that the doom was 
sealed, which, in his superstitious anticipations, he 



164 CORTES. 

had dreaded. It was not the intention of 
Cortes to do more than convince the captive 
monarch that he was in the hands of his mas- 
ters. As soon as the dismal tragedy without 
was ended, he ordered the manacles to be re- 
moved, and on his knees entreated pardon for 
what, he said, necessity had compelled him to 
do. His object was gained. The depressed 
spirit of the emperor was broken, not bent, and 
it never rose again. 

Cortes saw that he might even allow him to 
return to his palace ; but he declined the offer. 
He said, that were he in the midst of his 
officers he could not prevent them from attack- 
ing the Spaniards for their late proceedings and 
he wished to prevent bloodshed. Perhaps, too, 
he feared that they would attack himself for 
submission, though it was enforced by compul- 
sion. 

The general declared that he had thus won 
every Spaniard to his interests. For some time 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 165 

after this Montezuma seemed only to have 
changed his residence. His manner of life was 
the same as heretofore, except that he mingled 
constantly with the Spaniards, witnessing with 
eagerness their military exercises and different 
amusements. 

But Cortes was never unmindful of his own 
insecure position ; and, that he might not be de- 
pendent on the causeways for communication 
with the mainland, he obtained, on plausible 
pretexts, the consent of Montezuma for the con- 
struction of two brigantines large enough to 
transport the troops, if such a measure should 
be necessary. When they were finished the 
captive emperor delighted to sail in them and 
admired the skill with which they were man- 
aged. The general also carefully attended to 
public affairs ; sought to promote agriculture ; 
obtained a grant of land which he cultivated 
successfully, and was in fact the ruler of the 
country. Only on the emperor's mind he could 
make no impression on the subject of religion, 



166 COBTES. 

and human sacrifices continued to be of daily 
occurrence. 

Two sources of painful anxiety still existed, 
and they soon became sources of actual danger. 
In the first place, though Montezuma was quietly 
submissive, great discontent prevailed among 
the nobles; and at length a conspiracy was 
formed against the Spaniards. Cortes, alwa}-s on 
the watch, heard of it, and promptly adopted 
measures to prevent an outbreak. The leading 
man of the confederacy was Cacama, the em- 
peror's nephew, Lord of Tezcuca. His capital 
stood on the north-eastern border of _ the great 
lake and is said to have contained one hundred 
and fifty thousand inhabitants. Through the 
assistance of Montezuma, Cortes procured his 
seizure, and threw him, fettered, into prison. 
The emperor also, declared his dominions to be 
forfeited and put in his place his younger brother, 
Cuicuitzea. Believing that for the present, at 
least, he was secure, and wishing to have the 
coast-frontier well guarded, Cortes, having learned 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 167 

that a good harbor existed about sixty leagues 
south of Vera Cruz, detached one hundred and 
fifty men, under Velasquez de Leon, to found a 
colony there. 

One step in advance he was at length en- 
abled to take towards the introduction of Chris- 
tianity. A large temple was given to the Span- 
iards for the celebration of their worship. The 
idols were thrown down, the rooms cleansed, 
and the priests and troops publicly marched in 
one of the grand processions of the Catholic 
ceremonial up the winding ascent to raise an 
altar there, surmounted by a crucifix and the 
image of the Virgin. But the most serious 
consequences resulted. The people regarded 
this as an outrage on their gods, and the priests 
felt it still more and successfully labored to 
excite discontent. The latter had full liberty 
of access to Montezuma. The emperor had 
chosen a Spanish youth as his page, and was 
much attached to him ; but he had begun to 
understand the language, and was not allowed 



168 CORTES. 

to be present at some of their interviews. The 
behavior of Montezuma was observed to be- 
come more reserved, and when Cortes spoke to 
him on the subject he told him that the gods 
had threatened to forsake the city if the strangers 
were not driven from it, or sacrificed on their 
altars for their crimes against them. He ad- 
vised them to leave of their own accord. To gain 
time and preserve quietness, Cortes spoke of 
his want of vessels to remove them. The em- 
peror agreed that a number of workmen should 
go down to the coast to build some ships under 
Spanish direction. In the meanwhile their 
quarters were put into a state of preparation 
for any hostile movement: and as many pre- 
cautions were taken as if they had been actually 
in a state of siege. 

Thus did matters go on until the beginning 
of Ma}% 1520, when the second source of the 
general's anxiety became an occasion of real 
danger. He received intelligence from the coast 
which alarmed him more than the threatened 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 169 

insurrection of the people. Velasquez had des- 
patched a powerful armament from Cuba under 
the comand of Panfilo de Narvaez with orders 
to deal with Cortes as a rebel : and on the 
23d of April, 1520, it had arrived. Cortes was 
now in a painful dilemma. To withdraw from the 
capital would be to renounce his grand object ; 
and to allow his enemies to triumph on the coast 
would be equally ruinous to him. He resolved 
to leave a strong garrison behind under the 
command of Alvarado, and at once to go and 
meet Narvaez. He employed such expedition 
as to be able to surprise his foes, confident in 
their strength, and in a night attack completely 
to rout them, and take their commander prisoner. 
His engaging manners and liberal promises 
induced many of the new-comers to join 
him. 

Thinking himself sufficiently strong to pursue 
his plans of colonization, he was about to send 
two detachments for that purpose to the north 
and south, when he received intelligence from 



170 CORTES. 

the capital that almost crushed his gigantic 
intellect. The Mexicans were in a state of 
revolt, the Spanish garrison was closely be- 
sieged, the vessels he had constructed had been 
destroyed, all supplies were cut off, and the 
Aztecs were waiting with dogged resolution 
to conquer by famine the invaders of their land. 
He had mistaken the character of Alvarado, 
who, under a gay and showy exterior, concealed 
a rapacious and cruel heart. Apprehending a 
revolt of the Mexicans, he had taken the op- 
portunity of the assembling of more than six 
hundred of their chief nobles for the celebra- 
tion of a religious festival, to fall on them sud- 
denly and put every man to death. He thought 
he was imitating Cortes at Cholula ; but in his 
rashness, he thought only of the blow to be 
struck and took no precautions against results 
which might have been foreseen. 

The long-smothered hatred at once burst out. 
The desire of vengeance overcame all dread. 
The priests seized the occasion furnished by 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 171 

this profanation of their religion to stimulate 
the passions already excited to madness, and 
the whole city rose in arms. After an arduous 
conflict, in which several Spaniards were slain 
and nearly all wounded, the first furious on- 
slaught was repelled"; but they were subject to 
the strictest blockade, and knew that if they 
were not speedih r relieved, famine, with exhaus- 
tion from the toil of unremitting defence or 
watchfulness, would deliver them into the hands 
of their foes to be dragged in triumph to the 
stone of sacrifice. 



CHAPTER IX. 

DEATH OF MONTEZUMA — SPANIARDS OBLIGED 
TO RETREAT — BATTLE OF OTUMBA. 



H 



OWEVER indignant Cortes might be at 



the conduct of Alvarado, which was as 
impolitic as it was criminal, he felt that no time 
must be lost if he would prevent the prize of 
all his labors from being torn away when al- 
most won ; he therefore prepared to march with 
all his forces. On the 24th of June he again 
crossed the causeway, and entered the Spanish 
quarters unopposed. Everything was soon ready 
for still more efficient defence ; and Cortes, 
confiding in his additional strength (for his 

172 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 173 

Tlascalan auxiliaries, as well as his European 
troops, were far more numerous than before), 
hoped not only to repel, but now finally to 
subdue his Aztec foes. The storm soon burst 
upon them. They were assailed by countless 
thousands of armed men, and were only saved 
by the most laborious exertions, aided by their 
artillery and other fire-arms. 

Several days passed thus. Several sorties 
were made ; but, however destructive the Span- 
ish weapons, they who fell were instantly re- 
placed, and the masses seemed to suffer no dim- 
inution. Cortes at length resolved to employ 
Montezuma, authorizing him, in addressing the 
multitudes from the walls, to tell them that if 
a way were opened for their safe departure 
they would at once avail themselves of it. Dres- 
sed in his imperial robes, he ascended a turret, 
and for a moment, as soon as he was seen, the 
tumult was hushed ; but suddenly it broke forth 
with greater violence than ever. Not content 
with reviling their unhappy monarch, a shower 



174 CORTES. 

of stones was hurled against him from their 
slings and he was struck to the ground. They 
thought he was slain, and by an instant revul- 
sion of feeling, as if seized with panic, they 
began to flee, and soon not a man was left. 
But the pause was of short duration. The next 
morning the attack was renewed and the as- 
sailants appeared to be as numerous as ever. 
Cortes frequently heard the cry which sounded 
as a funeral knell, " The bridges are broken 
down ! Not one shall escape ! Our god shall 
have the blood of you all ! " 

In the course of this fearful day, Montezuma, 
who had been sinking from the time that he 
had been borne wounded from the walls, expired 
in the arms of some of his faithful nobles, earn- 
estly commending his children to the care of 
Cortes. The body was carried by some of the 
Spanish leaders, to be delivered with all respect 
to the Mexicans, by whom it was conveyed to 
the place where the remains of his ancestors 
were deposited. With him fell the Mexican 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 175 

empire. His first successor thought indeed lie 
had freed his country, but died immediately 
after the expulsion of the Spaniards. Scarcely 
had his successor mounted the throne, when the 
invaders returned in greater force than ever ; 
and after a brief but arduous struggle, in which 
he lost his life, the final victory was won. Cortes 
became the conqueror as he had been the dis- 
coverer of Mexico, and the Aztec imperial 
dynasty was supplanted by the vice-regal rep- 
resentatives of the Spanish crown. 

Cortes felt that the last link of connection 
with Mexico was, at least for the present, de- 
stroyed ; and on consultation with his officers, 
instead of longer resisting forces to whom 
numbers must at length insure success, re- 
solved to withdraw from the city. As the 
bridges were broken down a frame of timber 
Avas constructed to be thrown across the gaps 
sufficiently strong to bear the weight of the 
baggage-wagon and artillery as well as of horses 
and the men. At midnight the march com- 



176 CORTES. 

menced, a large portion of the wealth they had 
collected being of necessity left behind. They 
were allowed to reach the entrance of the 
causeway and to fix their temporary bridge. 

Suddenly the alarm was. given. The Mexi- 
cans had only seemed to sleep. All was pre- 
pared for a triumph which they hoped would be 
final. The priests were on the temple summits, 
and, as soon as the signal was given, began 
to beat their dreadful war-drums, sending forth 
a loud and doleful sound, which told the 
Spaniards what fate would be theirs if they 
became captives. The city poured out its 
whole population to assail the retreating army 
in the rear, while the lake was covered with 
boats filled with armed men. The attack was 
fierce beyond description. Unhappily, too, the 
wooden frame, when all had once passed over 
it, was fixed so firmly in the ground that it 
could not be taken up, and the whole body 
was pushed on towards the next vacancy. This 
was only filled up by the wagons and artillery, 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 177 

over which the men had to scramble, the 
furious assailants still pressing them, and 
showering darts and stones in a continual 
storm. Hours were thus consumed; but the 
desperate resistance of the Spaniards was at 
length so far successful, that as day dawned 
they had reached the mainland; and presenting 
a still undaunted however diminished front to 
the foe, they were pursued no farther. They 
hastened onward till they reached a place where 
thej r thought they might repose in safety. 

Cortes found that four hundred and fifty 
Spaniards and four thousand natives were miss- 
ing. All the baggage was lost, all the artillery, 
muskets, and ammunition. They had only their 
swords, a few damaged cross-bows, and their 
crippled cavalry. Most of the leaders had es« 
caped and Marina was safe. But where were 
the visions of the general? Was even final 
safety possible? On every side the prospect 
was dark. After this sad and melancholy night 
(still known in the annals of Mexico as the 



178 CORTES. 

"Noche Triste"), was not the indomitable spirit 
of the leader beaten to the earth? Though 
plunged in grief he was still unconquered. As 
soon as the men were rested the retreat again 
commenced towards Tlascala, followed by small 
bodies of the enemy, who seized on every 
straggler and carried him off for sacrifice. 
They thus travelled slowly for nine days, when 
they encamped at the foot of a range of hills 
be}^ond which was a plain containing the most 
sacred monuments in the country after those of 
Cholula. 

Ascending this hill on the morning of the 8th 
of Julj r , they witnessed a sight which might 
have appalled the stoutest heart. An army of, 
at least, two hundred thousand warriors, was 
drawn up to oppose their progress, and their 
only weapons were their good swords, with a 
few lances for the handful of horsemen. Re- 
treat was impossible ; to be captured was to 
become victims for sacrifice. One way alone 
was left for them. They must cut their path 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 179 

through that mass of human opponents and 
succeed or die. Their armor and steel swords 
furnished their sole advantage. Their foes 
could only act in their presence. It was barely 
possible that they might hack their way 
through. Cortes having spoken a few words to 
his men, they charged in a body, cutting right 
and left and thrusting at those before them ; 
and, as soon as they had made their way into 
the mass, others carefully guarded the rear. 
This desperate combat lasted for hours; till, 
with the violent heat of a tropical sun, and 
the labor of violently attacking the enemy they 
began to feel exhausted from sheer fatigue. 

Cortes knew that this was the crises ; and, 
self-possessed even at this awful time, raising 
himself on his horse, and looked around to 
see if anything presented itself by which even 
yet a favorable issue might be secured. Not 
far distant he perceived the commander-in- 
chief of the Mexicans, seated on a litter, sur- 
rounded by a guard of nobles, and the standard 



180 COKTES. 

of the army raising from behind him. Knowing 
the effect of the loss of a general, especially 
on the Mexicans, he said to a few of his leaders 
who were with him, "That is our mark. Fol- 
low me ! " Spurring his horse he forced his 
way through with his bold cavaliers, and was 
in a few minutes by the litter. Before the 
guard could oppose him, almost before the as- 
tonished commander perceived his presence, 
Cortes thrust him through with his lance and 
overturned the litter, while his comrades scat- 
tered the guard as with the sudden fury of a 
hurricane. One of them tore off the standard 
and gave it to Cortes. They then turned to re- 
join their friends. 

The fall of the standard and waving 
plumes of the commander had been witnessed 
by the whole army. Dreading some unknown 
exercise of power a general panic seized the 
whole, and throwing away their arms and what- 
ever might impede their movements, they fled in 
all directions, so that the Spaniards had only 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 181 

to drive their terrified foes before them, and 
before long, they stood victors on the field 
where they had just before scarcely expected 
to do more than sell their lives at as dear a 
rate as possible. All acknowledged the hand 
of Providence in their almost miraculous de- 
liverance, and Cortes instantly called them to 
a solemn act of thanksgiving to its Author. 
They then began to collect the spoil; and be- 
fore they left the field they had gathered a 
harvest only inferior ' to what they had lost 
in the "Night of Gloom." Not fewer than 
twenty thousand Mexicans were slain. Such 
was the Battle of Otumba. Both in itself and 
in its issues one of the most remarkable that 
ever was fought. It revived the hopes of 
Cortes; and though for a time retiring from 
Mexico, he felt that he should soon return 
and make it his own. 



CHAPTER X. 

CORTES AT TLASCALA — THE ARMY RECRUITED 
— SECOND ADVANCE OX MEXICO — CONSPI- 
RACY OF YILLAFANA. 

A T Tlascala the fugitives met with the 
•*■ ^ kindest reception, and Cortes resolved to 
continue there till he could complete those re- 
newed preparations for the conquest of Mexico, 
which he intended to commence as soon as he 
and his troops were recovered from their anxi- 
eties and fatigues. To keep his troops in ex- 
ercise, and to fit the Tlascalans for more 
efficient service, he conducted expeditions 

against such neighboring tribes as were subject 

182 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 183 

to Mexico. The spoil he mostly gave to his 
allies. Gradually he so spread the terror of 
the Spanish name, that, even from distant 
provinces, he received offers of allegiance to 
Spain. He ordered the construction of thirteen 
brigantines which might be taken to pieces, 
conveyed to the lakes and re-constructed there, 
thus to give him the command of the capital 
by water. Several vessels, too, arrived at 
Villa Rica: and his lieutenant there secured 
him considerable supplies of men, horses, ar- 
tillery, and ammunition. By Christmas, he be- 
lieved that all was ready for his march to 
Mexico. 

New events also had occurred there. Cuit- 
lahuac, Montezuma's successor, had died sud- 
denly of the small-pox ; and in his room, Guate- 
mozin, a near relation had been chosen. He 
was brave, determined in hostility to the Span- 
iards, and, though only twenty-five years of 
age, possessed of much military skill. Foresee- 
ing the attempt of Cortes, he exerted himself 



184 CORTES. 

to the utmost to be enabled to meet it. 
Cortes had now under his command about 
six hundred Europeans, forty being cavalry, 
and eighty arquebusiers and cross-bow men. 
The rest were armed with sword and target, 
and the long pike, which he had adopted 
from the Indians. He had nine pieces of artil- 
lery and a moderate supply of powder. There 
was a large body of Indian allies, many of 
them trained according to European tactics. 
His plan was to fix his head-quarters on the 
northern lake, whence he could reduce the 
surrounding country, cut off supplies from the 
capital, and virtually place it in a state of 
blockade. The direct attack was to be post- 
poned till the presence of the brigantines 
should give him the command of the lake. 
He marched soon after Christmas, and on the 
last day of 1520 took possession of the city 
of Tezcuco without opposition, a number of 
the hostile inhabitants leaving the city at his 
approach, among them the cacique. Cortes, 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 185 

however, procured the appointment of his 
brother, Ixtlilxochitl, who had commanded the 
Tezcucan army. He became, and ever con- 
tinued, the fast friend of the Spaniards, sup- 
porting them with all his resources. 

For several weeks Cortes acted on the plan 
he had laid down, exercising without fatiguing 
his troops. Discipline was the more easily pre- 
served, as every one who wandered from the 
main body was soon made a prisoner, accord- 
ing to the orders of the young emperor ; 
which were, that no one of his foes should be 
put to death except at the stone of sacrifice. 
The limbs of any unhappy Spaniard who 
fell into his hands were cut off and distributed 
among the cities of the empire. The plan of 
the general was eminently successful. His 
troops never fought but they conquered. Place 
after place fell into their hands ; and the 
power of Guatemozin was weakened by the 
very means which he employed to establish it, 
as his subjects became increasingly discontented 



186 CORTES. 

with his demands of men and supplies. No 
true patriotism exists where dominion is main- 
tained only by abject terror. The rule of 
Cortes could not be more oppressive than that 
of Guatemozin and would be incomparably less 
sanguinary. 

When the brigantines w T ere ready at Tlascala, 
Cortes ordered their transportation under a 
strong escort of Spaniards and an army of 
Tlascalans, all commanded by Sandoval. The 
precious burdens were brought into the city 
in grand procession and taken to the place on 
the lake where they were to be got ready for 
actual service. About the same time he re- 
ceived a powerful re-inforcement from the coast, 
consisting of two hundred men and eighty 
horses, with a good supply of ammunition ; but 
as the brigantines were not ready he still em- 
ployed his men in various expeditions. One of 
these went as far as the western slope of the 
Cordilleras toward the Pacific Ocean. But 
treachery had nearly brought his career of 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 187 

triumph to a close. One of the soldiers of 
Narvaez finding others as disaffected as himself, 
organized a conspiracy for the assassination 
of their noble leader and his principal compan- 
ions, into which they drew several who ap- 
peared to be the personal friends of Cortes. 

Villafana, the name of the original conspira- 
tor, had a list of his associates, and the day 
was fixed for carrying into execution their atro- 
cious design. But on the preceding evening 
one of the party, mo /Li with compunction, 
went to the general and told him the whole. 
He sent for Sandoval and the others who were 
doomed to perish with him. They proceeded to 
the quarters of Villafana, who, conscience- 
struck, endeavored to swallow a paper contain- 
ing the list of his accomplices, but was pre- 
vented. A military court was hastily assembled, 
and he was condemned to die. In the morning 
he was seen hanging from the window of his 
own residence. The ignorant were astonished, 
the guilty alarmed; but Cortes, addressing the 



188 COKTES. 

troops, told them that no confession had been 
made and that if the others kept their own 
counsel they would never be known. He was 
not less sagacious than lenient. He could al- 
ways watch the others;. but as they were not 
aware of the extent of his knowledge, he did 
not make them his avowed enemies, and by a 
studious show of attachment they sought to 
prevent any suspicion from arising. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE SIEGE OF MEXICO — SUBJUGATION OF THE 
COUNTRY — CORTES VISITS SPAIN — RETURNS 
TO MEXICO — RE-VISITS EUROPE — DEATH AT 
SEVILLE. 

r I ^HE brigantines being completed, on the 

-*■ 28th of April, 1521, they were launched 

with great ceremony. He next mustered his 

forces. They amounted to eighty-seven horse 

and eight hundred and eighteen foot, a hundred 

and eighteen having muskets and crossbows. 

He had three large field-pieces of iron, and 

fifteen smaller ones of brass, and a large quantity 

of ammunition. He had announced to his In- 

1S9 



190 COETES. . 

dian allies his intention of besieging the capital 
and called for their promised levies. When all 
was ready he stated his plans to his officers, 
and the troops took up such positions as to 
command all the approaches to the city. By 
the latter end of May the siege of Mexico had 
commenced. 

Actual hostilities began on the lake. When 
the brigantines got under way an immense num- 
ber of boats, filled with armed men. came from 
the different avenues of the city and approached 
near enough to hurl their missiles at the crews 
on board the vessels. Cortes ordered all sail to 
be set and the brigantines dashed into the 
midst of the flotilla careering in all directions 
and firing right and left as they sailed on. 
A complete victory was soon gained. Scarcely 
a boat or a man escaped. Nor were the first 
attempts of the besieged by land any more 
successful. In a short time every road of com- 
munication was in the hands of the Spaniards. 
The causeways were next attacked. The Mexi- 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 191 

cans fought with desperate resolution ; but the 
attacks of the army in front were supported by 
the brigantines in flank and rear, and in a few 
days the Spaniards had direct access to the 
city. Offers of capitulation were made ; but 
Guatemozin would listen to no terms. The 
priests promised that his enemies should yet 
be brought to the stone of sacrifice. 

The city itself was then attacked ; but the 
defenders were so numerous, and the defence 
so obstinate, that the Spanish advances were 
slow and the contests in the streets most san- 
guinary. In one of them, through the neglect 
of an officer to secure a position in the rear, an 
assailing party commanded by Cortes was driven 
back to the causeway and himself placed in the 
most imminent danger. A number of Spaniards 
were taken captive ; and at night the attention 
of the army being suddenly called to a bright 
illumination of the temple of the great war- 
god, they saw with horror the prisoners con- 
ducted in triumph to its summit, and there 



192 CORTES. 

laid one by one on the alter and their hearts 
torn out to be presented before the grim idol. 
In another attack they cat their way to the 
temple and after a murderous conflict rushed up 
the assent, dashing down the priests and hurl- 
ing the monstrous image from the summit into 
the street. The flames consuming all that was 
combustible, proclaimed to city and country 
that the dreadful Hnitzilopotchli, so far from 
being able to defend his votaries, could not pre- 
vent his own destruction. 

Soon were the Mexicans assailed by other 
foes. Perceiving the undeniably superior power 
of the Spaniards and the certainty of the fall 
of Guatemozin, cities and even provinces began 
to send in their submission, so that fewer at- 
tempts were made to supply the still numerous 
multitudes that crowded the city with food. 
Famine and pestilence commenced their awful 
ravages. The buildings near the lake were al- 
most all destroyed and many of the chief ones 
of the interior. But Guatemozin would listen 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 193 

to no offers of accommodation, repeatedly as 
they were made to him. Still was every prisoner 
sacrificed ; and if a white man, means were 
found of sending the heads and limbs to distant 
parts of the empire. Still did the priests, mad 
for vengeance, promise him victory; and after 
every failure their cry was still for blood to ap- 
pease the wrath of their insulted deity, and 
induce him to put forth his power against those 
who had destroyed his temple. 

But all was in vain. By the latter end 
of July, seven-eighths of the city, little more 
than a vast heap of ruins, were in the hands 
of the Spaniards. The inhabitants, forced into 
the remaining eighth, in which there was scarcely 
room for a third of the numbers — which still 
were great — saw hundreds perishing daily. 
Only one or two temples were left, but on these 
the same bloody rites were still performed, 
while the flesh of the victims supplied a dread- 
ful repast to the savage off rers. If the heart 
would >ympathise with the patriotism of the 



194 CORTES. 

young emperor, the feeling is checked by the 
horror which his obstinate superstition occa- 
sions. He adhered to gods whose powerlessness 
he witnessed, and worshipped them by rites at 
which uninfuriate nature shudders. He even 
ordered to the stone of sacrifice a noble whom 
the Spaniards had taken prisoner, and sent to 
him with proposals of accommodation. 

On the last portion of the city assaults were 
at length made. In one of them forty thousand 
are said to have been slain. Before long nearly 
the whole was won. Orders in the meantime 
had been given that the utmost vigilance should 
be kept up on the lake, that the emperor might 
not escape. This was not attempted till the 
unsurrendering crowd that remained were hem- 
med up into a narrow space, provoking, by a 
feeble discharge of their missiles, the death- 
dealing strokes of their exasperated foes. At 
the same time- — night now approaching — three 
or four large canoes were seen moving rapidly 
across the lake. One of the brigantines gave 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 195 

chase, and soon overtook them. Before the 
crew could fire, a cry arose from the boats that 
the emperor was there. A young warrior, full- 
armed, rose up as if to defend himself; but 
when he saw that the Spaniards were ordered 
not to fire, he said, "I am Guatemozin. Lead 
me to Malintzin. I am his prisoner; but let 
no harm come to my wife and children." He 
was taken to Cortes who received him and his 
family with the respect which the brave Span- 
iards felt was due to a brave adversary and a 
fallen sovereign. His wife, the youngest daugh- 
ter of Montezuma, only in earliest woman- 
hood, was treated with chivalrous courtesv. 

And well could Cortes afford this ; for the 
war was at an end. The long-sought prize 
was won. The horrors of the siege had been 
almost unexampled; but it is only just to the 
Spaniards to saj r , that having commenced they 
had no choice between prosecuting it to its 
close and a disgraceful withdrawal. The 
actual contests w r ere on both bides dreadful; 



196 CORTES. 

but no captive was treated with anything but 
kindness, while all prisoners taken b} r the 
Mexicans were devoted to deliberate and agon- 
izing slaughter. Guatemozin refused all accom- 
modation, and only left his capital when no 
spot of ground on it remained for him. 

After his capture, the rapacious victors be- 
gan to hunt for the spoil. Great was their 
disappointment. Scarcely anything on which 
they had set their hearts was to be found. 
The most valuable articles had been hidden, or 
cast in to the lake. Bitterly vexed, they de- 
manded that the emperor should be compelled 
to reveal the places of concealment ; and 
though Cortes at first refused, yet, when 
charged with leaguing with the emperor for his 
own gain he yielded, and Guatemozin and the 
cacique of Tacuba were put to the tor- 
ture. 

The stain on the memory of Cortes be- 
comes still deeper when the subsequent fate 
of the unhappy hero is remembered. Not long 






CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 197 

after the capture of the city, Cortes undertook 
an expedition to Honduras. Guatemozin was 
carried with them. On the way a conspiracy 
against the Spaniards was discovered and the 
prisoner was charged with having joined in it. 
Cortes says that he refused either to obey or 
to confess; but he was ordered to execution 
in the most ignominious form of European 
punishment. One who was present, and after- 
wards wrote the History of the Conquest, says 
that his last words were, " Why do you slay 
me so unjustly? God will require it of you!" 

Of Mexico itself, it only remains to be said 
that the work of reconstruction was instantly 
begun ; and that in less than four years, the 
capital of New Spain, if inferior in extent to 
that of the Aztec empire, far surpassed it in 
strength and magnificence. It was governed bv 
Spanish viceroys, till, in our own day, it was 
enabled to constitute itself the independent re- 
public of Mexico. 

The remainder of the history of Cortes may 



198 CORTES. 

soon be related. Though his enemies in Spain 
used their utmost influence, his complete suc- 
cess in Mexico, for the time, removed all ob- 
stacles to his advancement. He was, October, 
1522, by Charles V., appointed governor, cap- 
tain-general, and chief justice of the country 
he had won. For some time he labored to 
remedy the evils of the past war, and to pro- 
mote agriculture and commerce. Afterwards he 
conducted, or sent out, expeditions for further 
discovery, especially on the shores of the Pa- 
cific, north of the isthmus. 

But it was not the policy of Charles to 
allow his representatives to be too powerful ; 
and Cortes was both thwarted and accused, so 
as to be obliged to return to Spain. He 
landed at Palos in Maj^, 1528. At court he 
was received with all honor, and raised to the 
Marquisate by the title of a large province 
which Montezuma had given him on the west- 
ern declivity of the Cordilleras. But Charles 
would not restore him to civil power, though 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 199 

he continued to him the supreme military 
command. 

In the spring of 1530 he returned to Mexico; 
but meeting with many mortifications from the 
new government, he retired to the palace he 
had built on his estate, spending his time in 
domestic quietness and attention to his prop- 
erty, both agricultural and mineral. After ten 
years he sailed once more for Spain, where he 
arrived in 1510 and was received by the em- 
peror with respect. 

He accompanied Charles, in 1511, in the dis- 
astrous expedition to Algiers and remonstrated 
against its abandonment, expressing his regret 
that he was not at the head of the veterans 
with whom he had conquered Mexico. Timid- 
ity prevailed, or, neither would Lord Exmouth 
have won such honor in chastening the Dev. 
nor the French acquired such disgrace by the 
unprincipled seizure of the country. The brief 
remainder of his life disclosed to him the em- 
peror as coldly civil and regardless of his 



200 CORTES. 

claims. In 1547, worn out with labor, he set 
out to return to Mexico, but could go no 
farther than Seville, where he died, December 
2d, 1547, in his sixty-third year. 

That he was a great man, even this imper- 
fect sketch will have shown. Was he a good 
man? He sincerely believed what his church 
told him and did what it ordered him. 
Many of its highest dignitaries were in 
this respect far below him. How far the 
errors of his age are to be pleaded in exten- 
uation of his moral defects is a question too 
high and solemn for the solution of man. 
"The Judge of all the earth will do right." 



A BRIEF SKETCH 



OF THE 



More Recent History of Mexico 



BY 



REV. WILLIAM BUTLER. 



CHAPTER I. 

rome's opportunity and failure. 

MEXICO was conquered in the interests of 
the Church of Rome, and never has a 
nation been more absolutely surrendered to the 
power and influence of the Catholic communion 
than the Empire of Montezuma was in 1530. For 
more than three centuries that rich and exten- 
sive land was moulded to her will, and this 
without any interference from other nations or 
from other churches ; so that, whatever this 
Church could make of a great people and a 
wealthy country, she had full opportunity to 
show to the world at the close of the long period 
of her undisputed sway in Mexico. 

Romanism found the Aztecs occupying the 

205 



206 CORTES. 

highest position of any people on this hemisphere, 
comparatively wealthy, liberal and intelligent ; and 
reduced them to the lowest scale occupied by 
any American people — a condition where they 
became so poor, degraded and ignorant, that 
revolution alone could save the nation's life. 

Romanism entered Mexico, not as the Evan- 
gelical Missionary enters a heathen land, with 
God's Word in his hands and unsustained by any 
brute force, winning his converts by intelligence 
and persuasion to accept his creed, and then 
building up his institutions by the voluntary love 
and liberality of his Christian people ; but it 
came heralded by a cruel army, who destroyed 
the unfortunate natives by thousands, and then 
established its church by the grossest acts of 
public spoliation and wrong. 

By force and fraud the public and personal 
property of the people was seized, and their 
revenues applied to build up the religious insti- 
tutions of their conquerors in splendor, and to 
an extent, beyond that of any other land, until 



\ 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 207 

the Church of Rome in Mexico became the 
wealthiest Ecclesiastical Establishment in Chris- 
tendom in proportion to the population. 

When at last, and after enduring these 
wrongs for centuries, the oppressed Mexi- 
cans rose up in their wrath and threw off 
the slavery and injustice to which they had 
been so long subjected, a clay of retribution 
dawned, which Cortes and his King and Council 
had not dreamed of as a future possibility ; 
though one good Bishop, the venerable Las Casas 
of Sonora, had warned his brethren that there 
was fearful responsibility and risk in the course 
they had pursued, and for which a just God, 
who is ever on the side of the oppressed, would 
yet bring them into judgment. But they scorned 
the warning of the old prelate. For in those 
days, " on the side of the oppressors there w^as 
power." They thought that power would last 
always, and that they could afford to presume 
upon it. So the iron rale of this foreign 
church ran on, till the wealth and resources, 



208 COBTES. 

and even the government of the country, were 
largely within her cruel grasp. 

One has only to walk through the palace 
and prison built by the Count of Regla, near 
Real del Monte, to be able, from this sample, 
to imagine the horrors to which the unhappy 
people were reduced, as, one generation after an- 
other, they toiled in the mines of Mexico, not 
merely to erect the grandest cathedrals on this 
continent and fill them with costly relics from 
Rome, and adorn Virgin Marys by the score, 
until the Hierarchy could boast that the jewelled 
petticoats on one of them was worth a colossal 
fortune ! But, in addition to all this, these Mex- 
icans, whose ancestors owned all this mineral 
wealth, and with it had advanced arts and sci- 
ences, built magnificent cities, made roads and 
aqueducts, and public improvements of all kinds, 
possessing a powerful government and abundance 
of the good things of this world — these, their 
descendants, were condemned to toil to send the 
wealth of their country by millions in Spanish 



\ 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 209 

14 galleons" to fill the cathedrals of Spain with 
equal magnificence and also to furnish the abun- 
dant means which enabled that Spanish bigot, 
Philip IL, to fight freedom, and the Reformation 
of the 16th century by the aid of Mexican silver. 
But the results of this ill-gotten wealth only 
proved how wise and true is the Word of God, 
when it speaks of him that " getteth riches and 
not by right," for to Spain the wealth of Mexico 
proved not a blessing but a curse. It engendered 
the luxury, indolence and effeminacy which un- 
sanctioned riches are sure to bring with them, and 
at length reduced her from the highest position 
iu European nationality to one of the lowest, 
without either credit or influence. While show- 
ing the contrast which the Bible and Heaven's 
blessing secure, the very Protestantism which 
she so fanatically aimed to exterminate is hold- 
ing to-day the supremacy which she then wielded, 
and is handling the wealth which was once so 
fully under her control ! 

Those who know Mexican history and the 



210 CORTES. 

modern Mexico which Romanism has made out 
of the Montezumean Empire, will find but little 
difficulty in accepting the fearful charge which 
the enlightened men of that land make against 
the rule of Ronie,. when they declare that the 
masses of the Mexican people are feo-day in a 
far worse condition, in all the circumstances of 
life, intelligence and comfort, than they were on 
that da}' in 1519 when Cortez burned his ships 
in the harbor of Vera Cruz and marched to 
the conquest of their country ! The years since, 
have been worse than lost, for those whom they 
conquered they have degraded, while they have 
also perverted their immense resources, and 
made their unfortunate country a bvword amono- 
the nations for the unrest, intolerance, waste and 
carnage without an equal in all Christendom* 
Of what other people can it be said, that 
during the past eight years the ignorant and 
misguided fanatics, whom Mexican Catholicism 
had trained and inspired, have in different quar- 
ters not merely burned Protestant places of wor- 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 211 

ship, but have mobbed and assaulted worship- 
pers; and even at dead of night and in their 
churches, have massacred in cold blood six 
ministers and about forty members. And these 
religious murders have generally followed the 
promulgation of edicts and pastorals of Romish 
bishops, and denunciations by the clergy from 
their altars. Well said our Quaker poet some 
time ago, "Woe be to the church which break- 
eth the peace of God among men, and mingleth 
human blood with her wine of sacrament ! " 
Yet this is what Rome has made out of the 
hospitable and tolerant Aztec race, until their 
public men are forced, in their shame and in- 
dignation to exclaim : " With such fearful scenes 
reported, the outside world will regard our 
country as inhabited by a race of brutalized 
savages ! " 

But the guilt of these fearful crimes should 
not be laid at the door of the Mexican people, 
most of whom abhor and denounce them, but 
at the door of the Roman Catholic Church. 
God will no doubt hold her to a heavy re- 



212 CORTES. 

sponsibility, and even already he has begun to 
do so. In his hands we can leave her to meet 
the dread account which she has incurred for 
the blood shed at Acapulco, Atzala, Chapulhuac, 
Ahualulco, Apizaco, and other places. Poor 
Mexico! The ".Christianity " which her con- 
querors forced upon her became the leading 
agency of her sad degeneracy. How different 
would have been her condition to-day had that 
pure Gospel been sent to her which during 
the past fifty years has done so much to 
elevate and redeem the Karens, the Sandwich 
Isles, Madagascar, Feejee, and other heathen 
nations ! 







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. II 




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THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE- 



CHAPTER II. 

SPANISH RULE AND POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

/"^ORTES remorselessly swept from his path 
^^ the chiefs and leaders of the Aztec race, 
and as far as was in his power, divided the coun- 
ty among the Conquistador es, who had fought 
with him for their subjugation. 

Out of these arrangements arose the sj T stem 
of Hacienda, which still continues. Immense 
tracts of the land were handed over to his 
favorites. Some of these estates were as large 
as whole counties and even far larger. Santa 
Anna, for instance, and his next neighbor, Don 
Isidore had estates which " extended thirty 
leagues " along the road from Vera Cruz to 
Jalapa. Fortified farm-houses were erected in 

215 



216 CORTES. 

different localities, into which were collected 
the inhabitants of the surrounding region, for 
three or four miles or more, and here these people 
have lived and died for generations past, serving 
the Haciendado, or proprietor, on wages fixed 
by himself, ranging from* twenty to thirty cents 
per day — living in the meanest sort of mud 
huts, surrounded by restrictions which bound 
them to remain there and gave them hardly any 
chance to better their condition. They were 
reduced to practical slavery, and although the 
revolution in 1829 abolished this degradation. 
yet to-day they are mere Peons, and for immense 
multitudes of them the change is little more than 
nominal. Of course for these millions education 
and the comforts of life are out of the question. 
To each Hacienda was attached a church and 
a priest ; the churches being built in such solid 
form, and the windows so high above ground, 
that, in the event of any rising of the natives. 
the}' could well stand a siege. The priest was 
paid by the Haciendado or by endowments and 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO, 217 

fees, and his duty was to catholicize those within 
the enclosure, and lend all the sanctions of his 
office to hold the people in subjection to the state 
of things which had been established. This 
secured the country portions, so far as it could 
be carried out. 

In the towns and cities "Cathedrals were erected, 
and Episcopal palaces, with clerical colleges, 
monasteries and nunneries in wonderful pro- 
fusion. Authority was frequently given to the 
church to indent on the Alcaldes of the towns 
for unrequited toil in their erection. Large en- 
dowments were made to them of real estate, which 
increased immensely in value as time went on. 
So extensive did the monastic system become 
that, fifty such establishments were found in the 
city of Mexico alone, some of them so large as 
to occupy three and four blocks of ground, having 
their own cathedral, orchards, gardens and every 
luxury. When the Republican president Juarez 
called for a report of the extent and value of 
the real estate and income of the church of 



218 CORTES. 

Rome, it was found that the church held about 
$300,000,000 worth of property in her control, 
and had a yearly income approaching $25,000,000 
besides other perquisites. How this money 
was expended may be judged from the single 
fact, which amazed the nation when it was ascer- 
tained, that the twelve bishops received among 
them yearly $725,000, of which sum the arch- 
bishop of Mexico drew $135,000 per annum as 
his portion ! And all this, when the nation from 
which it was taken was so poor that she was 
on the verge of bankruptcy, and without ability 
to pay the officers of government or the army, 
and had no credit outside of the nation. 

There was then no bank in the country save 
the Archbishop's Court, where money could be 
borrowed and mortgages negotiated on terms 
favorable to the expectations of this wealthy 
church to increase her immense property thereby. 
When at last the clergy were appealed to to have 
this property taxed for the public good (as the 
lay estate was no longer able to bear the public 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 219 

burdens) the clericals indignantly refused to 
pay a cent of taxation, although at the time 
holding about one-half of the real estate of the 
capital, nor would they even grant a loan to 
help the government to live. Public men were 
thus driven to desperation and saw before them 
no other course but either to die as a nation or 
else secularize this enormous church property 
which had been wrung from the people by en- 
dowments, or b}' the use of the final sacraments 
in the hand of a grasping and unscrupulous 
priesthood, or else by the trading which the 
church was doing upon the wants and necessities 
of the nation. The people awoke after the con- 
viction that religion did not require such enor- 
mous endowments, and all the more when a 
proud and imperious Hierarchy were wielding 
them to the detriment of the civil and religious 
freedom of the nation. They had good precedents 
before them in other lands, and notably in Eng- 
land in the thirteenth century, when the Barons 
at Runnymede, at the point of their swords, 



220 CORTES. 

wrung from that Papal tyrant and coward, King 
John, the Magna Charta and the Statute of 
Mortmain, forbidding forever those gifts of land, 
which had by that time placed one third of 
England's real estate in the hands of the priests 
of Rome. 

But the church was not idle. She had well 
entrenched the power and privileges which 
Cortes and his successors had conferred upon 
her. She had early imported Franciscan monks 
to catholicize the nation, and lent them all the 
aid that legends, relics and money could impart. 
She then brought in the Dominicans, with their 
Spanish Inquisition, and established two immense 
branches of it in the cities of Puebla and Mexico, 
in order to terrorize and punish all dissent 
from the church and treason against the King. 
Long and vigorously did she work this instru- 
ment of infernal tyranny, all the dreadful secrets 
of which will never be known till the Judgment 
Day. One of her methods was to build the 
walls so wide (from 6 to 7 feet thick) that cells, 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 221 

4 feet 6 inches on the square and 7 feet high, 
were constructed in them, and into these she 
consigned the " heretics " whom she could not 
convince or answer, manacled with iron on the 
wrists and ankles, in their daily clothing as they 
stood, not like people ■ prepared for the grave, 
and then built up the doorway before their 
face and left them to die of suffocation ! The 
writer of these lines has measured those cells, 
and is in possession of the photographs which 
were taken of the victims, when the days of the 
great vengeance came and the doom of the 
Inquisition was pronounced by the Republic, 
and the men of Mexico (like the Parisians at the 
destruction of the Hostile) rushed at it and 
tore open the gates and tapped its walls to 
find, by the hollow sound, where these victims 
of Papal tyranny were immured ! 

Some of them were recent enough to be stood 
up against a flower stand in the patio, there to 
be photographed, so that the men of the future 
might have the perpetual evidence, printed by 



222 CORTES. 

the truthful sun, as to what the church had 
done with their countrymen, in the days of the 
dark and dreadful past. 

Another expedient employed to make con- 
verts to Christianity is the gorgeous and popular 
service held yearly to celebrate the origin 
of the two shrines of the two holy Virgins of 
Mexico. One of them is called the Virgin de 
los Remedios, the other the Virgin of Guada- 
loupe, the picture of whom heads this chapter. 
The first of these Virgins is described by a 
devout Romanist, Madam Calderon, wife of the 
Spanish Ambassador, as she saw it in 1840, as 
follows : 

" It is said that a soldier of Cortes' army 
named Villafuerte, brought this image to Mexico, 
and that on the day following the terrible c Noche 
Triste ' (the sad night) he concealed it in the 
place where it was afterwards discovered. At 
all events, the image disappeared, and nothing 
further was known of it until, on the top of a 
barren and treeless mountain in the heart of 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 223 

a large Maguey plant, she was found by a fortu- 
nate Indian. Her restoration was joyfully hailed 
by the Spaniards. A church was erected on the 
spot, and a priest appointed to take charge of 
the miraculous image. Her fame spread abroad. 
Gifts of immense value were brought to her 
shrine. A treasurer was appointed to take care 
of her jewels, a Camarista (a lady of honor) to 
superintend her rich wardrobe. No wealthy 
dowager died in peace till she had bequeathed 
to ' Our Ladj' de los Remedios ' her largest dia- 
mond or her richest pearl. In seasons of drought 
she is brought from her dwelling in the mountain 
and carried in procession through the streets. 
The viceroy himself, afoot, used to lead the holy 
train. A gentleman of the highest rank drives 
the chariot in which she is seated. In succession 
she visits the principal convents, and as she is 
carried through the cloistered precincts, the nuns 
are ranged on their knees in humble adoration. 
Plentiful rains immediately follow her arrival. 
'• We were admitted into the ' sanctum ' where 



224 CORTES. 

this identical image of Cortes' time occupies 
her splendid shrine. The priest retired and put 
on his robes and then returning, and all kneel- 
ing before the altar, he recited the Credo. This 
over, he mounted the steps, and opening the 
shrine where the Virgin was encased, knelt down 
and removed her in his arms. He then presented 
her to each one of us in succession, every one 
kissing the hem of her richly embroidered blue 
satin robe. She was afterwards replaced with 
the same ceremony. The image is a wooden 
doll about a foot high, holding in its arms an 
infant Jesus, both faces evidently carved with a 
rude penknife, two holes for the eyes and 
another for the mouth. She was dressed in 
blue satin and pearls, with a crown upon her 
head and a quantity of hair fastened to the 
crown. No Indian idol could be much uglier. 
As she has been a good deal scratched and de- 

strojred in the lapse of ages, C n observed 

that he was astonished that they had not tried 
to restore her. The Padre replied that the at- 



THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 225 

tempt had been made by several artists, each of 
whom had sickened and died. He also men- 
tioned some of her miracles, and that though liv- 
ing on a solitary mountain, she had never been 
robbed ; but I fear the good padre is somewhat 
oblivious, as the sacrilege has happened more 
than once. On one occasion, a crowd of leperos 
being collected, and the image being carried 
round to be kissed, one of them affecting intense 
devotion, bit off the large pearl that adorned 
her dress in front, and before the theft was dis- 
covered, he had mingled with the crowd and 
escaped. When reminded of the circumstance 
the padre said it was true, but that the 
thief was a Frenchman" (Life in Mexico, 
page 119.) 

And this is the description written, not by a 
satirical Protestant, but by a devout Romanist, 
one of the highest ladies of the land, con- 
cerning this so ridiculous and ugly idol. 
Yet, this has been served and worshipped, amid 
splendor and wealth as the female deity of 



226 COBTES. 

Mexico, since the days of Cortes, and the 
viceroy, the clergy and the nuns have all 
led on the people in adoring it ! 

And, the other virgin has an origin and in- 
fluence worthy of this one. The progress of the 
conversion of the Aztec race to Christianity 
was found by the Spanish conquerors ten years 
after they had gained possesssion of the country, 
not to be as far advanced as they could desire. 
A foreign religion forced on them by the sword, 
and involving such cruelty, that Charles V. and 
Pope Paul III. felt called on to remonstrate 
on their behalf, must have been difficult to com- 
mend to the Mexican people. They clung to 
their own idols in preference to the image of 
the Virgin Mary from Spain, the goddess of 
the court of foreigners who ruled them. 

If by any means a Virgin Mary of their own 
could arise instead of the foreign one, their adop- 
tion of her worship would be greatly facilitated 
of course. What was so desirable took place. 
But, we will let this devout Catholic lady herself, 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO, 227 

V 

tell the story, and she does it in the best way 
that the foolish fable will admit : 

"In 1531, a fortunate Indian peon, whose 
name was Juan Diego, went to Tlaltelolco to 
hear the Franciscan monks who taught there. 
Passing by the mountain of Tepeyac, the 
Virgin Mary appeared before him and ordered 
him to go, in her name, to the Bishop Zumarrago, 
and make known to him that she desired to 
have a church erected in her honor on that 
spot. Xext day, the Indian passing by the 
same place met her again, and in answer to 
her enquiries, said he had not been able to ob- 
tain an audience with the bishop, 'Return.' 
said the Virgin, ' and say that it is I, the Virgin 
Mary, the mother of God. who sends thee.' 
Juan Diego obeyed the divine orders, but the 
bishop would not credit him without he brought 
some sign or token of the Virgin's will. So 
Juan returned, and the next day (Dec. 12th) 
he met her again for the third time. She com- 
manded him to climb to the tup of the barren 



228 CORTES. 

rock and gather the roses he would find there 
and bring them to her. The humble messenger 
obeyed, well knowing there were no roses or 
vegetation there. Nevertheless, he found the 
roses as she said and brought them to her. 

" The Virgin Mary threw them into his tilma 
(a coarse blanket covering) and said to him, 
' Return to the bishop and tell him these are the 
credentials of thy mission.' He did so and un- 
folded the tilma to show him the roses, when 
there appeared imprinted on the tilma the mi- 
raculous image (of the Virgin) which has existed 
for three centuries. When the Bishop beheld 
it he was filled with astonishment and awe, and 
conveyed it in solemn procession to his own 
oratory, and shortly after this splendid church 
w^as erected in honor of the Patroness of New 
Spain." (Life in Mexico, page 61.) 

The old tilma was placed in a rich frame of 
gold, inlaid with diamonds and pearls, and hung 
in the church to receive the reverence of the 
multitudes, who for centuries past, crowded the 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 229 

magnificent church to do honor to their own 
Virgin Mary, the patron goddess of their country. 
The " facts " were reported to Pope Benedict 
XIV., who endorsed the whole affair and pre- 
scribed " the proper mass and ritual of devotion " 
for the same. And Juan Diego was well repaid 
for his part in the transaction ! It may be 
doubted if there is on this globe a more awful 
example of idolatrous service than has been wit- 
nessed here on the anniversary of this legend. 
From forty to fifty thousand people attend on 
such occasions, and such a mixture of heathen- 
ism, Christianity and human folly as is witnessed 
then and there cannot be seen elsewhere in 
Christendom. 

The description given by Wilson in his work on 
Mexico, of the wealth and splendor of this great 
church, the centre of all being the old tilma, 
is not overdrawn, and was true as late as when 
written in 1855. Up to that time these idola- 
trous and stupid ceremonials were attended by 
the high dignitaries of the State, the embassadors 



230 CORTES. 

of foreign powers and the aristocracy of the 
capital, as well as by the Hierarchy ; while the 
thousands of the poor ignorant Mexicans surged 
in and out and went frantic over their wonderful 
" miracle ' : and the dazzling show, all repeated 
during those three hundred years ! 

But a change has come at last, and now that 
the Inquisition has ceased to be a terror, or to 
have the power to imprison or bury alive, the 
priesthood and their ancient blanket are made 
the butt and laughing-stock of the educated, and 
the "festival" is left chiefly to the Indians, who 
mix up, in plays and dancing and whimsical 
attire, the orgies of the Aztec worship with such 
Christianity as they have learned from the Rom- 
ish Church. 

What makes this wicked burlesque on the 
religion of the Son of God all the more amazing 
and shocking is, that, the Virgin Mary of Guacla- 
loupe and the Virgin Mary los Remedios have 
been for generations in bitter hostility ! But 
how she can thus " be divided against " herself 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 231 

is something which (although the Mexican 
Romanist can swallow it all on the word of his 
priest) no Protestant can understand. Yet, such 
is the fact, and even Madam Calderon records it. 
For two hundred years the)' had divided between 
them the adoration of the people. But in 1810, 
when the blow was struck by Don Miguel 
Hidalgo for freedom from Spanish rule, he and 
his party placed on their standard the image 
of the Virgin of Guadaloupe, and entreated her 
aid in the bloody struggle, while the royal party 
adopted the image of the Virgin de los Rem- 
edios and implored her help. Poor Hidalgo was 
overthrown and the Virgin of Gaudaloupe was 
discredited, while the victorious army of the 
king entered the city of Mexico, conducting the 
Virgin de los Remedios, dressed as a general. 
This military doll was carried in triumphant 
procession through the streets, the cathedral 
choir singing a laudamus in honor of the victories 
she had inspired. This was the zenith of her 
glory. Her temple became like that of Diana 



232 CORTES. 

of the Ephesians. Her person shone in a blaze 
of jewels. She wore her three famous petticoats, 
one adorned with pearls, the next with rubies 
and the third with diamonds, of which her clergy 
boasted that the estimated cost of the three was 
fully 63,000,000! 

But, another turn of the wheel ere long re- 
versed all this, when the opposite party became 
triumphant by the revolution of Iguala. Her 
hated rival of Gaudaloupe was brought forth from 
her long obscurity, and the Virgin de los Rem- 
edios was disowned as a Grachupina ; and hand 
of the victorious chief tore her general's sash 
from her body, and her passport was made out 
and signed, with imperative orders that she was 
to leave the republic forthwith and follow the 
Spaniards, many of whom had just been expelled 
from the country. Before this was done, how- 
ever, the clerical party again triumphed and 
she was saved from the indignity, A few years 
later the French Intervention occurred, and this 
elevated her once more to honor and influence. 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 233 

She was again brought to the city in grand pro- 
cession and the Empress Carlotta, wife of 
Maximilian, threw her influence in favor of 
this idolatrous folly, and herself walked through 
the muddy streets of Mexico at the head of that 
procession, bearing in her hand a great wax taper 
in her honor ! But, that was the last. The vic- 
torious Republicans, after the execution of the 
emperor and the overthrow of the clerical party, 
abolished this folly by law and forbade the pro- 
cessions forever. Her sanctorum was despoiled. 

Eight years after, the writer visited her once 
splendid shrine, to find all the glory gone, and 
only tinsel and paste diamonds remaining. On 
asking the sad and solitary old priest, who still 
attends the dilapidated shrine, why she never 
went in grand procession now, he answered with 
a sigh and in charming simplicity, " Oh, Senor, 
she will never go in procession again until the 
Laws of Reform are repealed ! " Poor thing ! 
In this case her glory has departed forever. 

It is impossible to sketch the history of Mex- 



234 CCXRTES. 

ico's national life since the conquest, without 
giving prominence to these singular facts ; church 
and state, clericals and seculars, concordats and 
constitutions, Episcopal edicts and legal en- 
actments, are so confusedly mixed up together. 
These "lying wonders," forced upon a nation 
by an unprincipled and greedy priesthood, de- 
stroyed truth and made political rest impossible. 
God and his laws and the Bible were forgotten 
or unknown* But none the less did the inevi- 
table penalty come, and because they did not 
like to retain God in their knowledge, he gave 
them up to believe the lies which had been 
forged. 

They did those deeds against which the Al- 
mighty Lawgiver uttered his prohibition and pro- 
nounced his curse, when he said, " Take ye there- 
fore good heed lest ye corrupt yourselves and 
make you a graven image, the similitude of any 
figure; the likeness of male or female/' And 
again, " Cursed be the man that maketh any 
graven or molten image." The social, moral 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 235 

and political degradation and suffering of the 
country to which Cortes and Zumarrago left 
such a heritage, is a fearful commentary upon 
Psalm 97. 7 : " Confounded be all they that 
serve graven images, that boast themselves of 
idols ! ' : Here is to be found the real cause 
of wretched Mexico's sorrow, confusion and 
unrest. But, thank God, the darkness of ages is 
at last passing away and the light is dawning 
upon her, as turning from the causes of her 
degradation, she at last with anguished heart 
exclaims, like Ephraim, " What have I to do 
any more with idols ? " 



CHAPTER III. 

THE GREAT AWAKENING. 

T^VROM the time of the Conquest to 1821, 
■*■ Mexico constituted the vice-kingdom of 
New Spain and was governed by viceroys ap- 
pointed by the Spanish crown, everything being 
made to subserve the interests and profit of the 
monarchy and the church. Indeed the church 
ultimately became the paramount consideration. 
The wars of Napoleon I. and the degeneracy 
and weakness of the Spanish royal family, with 
the utter selfishness and disregard of the popular 
welfare manifested by their representatives in New 
Spain, at length awoke in the breasts of the Mex- 
ican race a longing for liberty from the hated 

yoke, and brought them into conflict with the 

236 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 237 

foreign church, which had ever tried to repress 
such aspirations and threw all its immense influ- 
ence in favor of the heartless despotism which 
had so long oppressed them. Confounding Chris- 
tianity with the Spanish church among them, 
and knowing no other, in proportion as light 
came in, the masses grew alienated from their 
ecclesiastical and civil masters, whom they saw 
making a monopoly of every post of honor or 
emolument in church or state, and requiring 
them to remain content in the lives of drudgery 
and ignorance to which they had been consigned. 
They saw themselves doomed to this condition 
generation after generation, without hope of any 
brighter day for their children. Now it began 
to dawn upon them that their masters had no 
warrant for all this wrong, but the original act 
of the violence of the sword, which had destroyed 
their civilization and seized and divided their 
fair lands among strangers, and so forced upon 
them the rule of a foreign king, whose will was 
represented to them as being the expression of 



288 cofcTES. 

the mind and purpose of Almighty God concern- 
ing them. The successive kings and viceroys 
relied on the church to maintain their hold upon 
the people. This was all the more necessary from 
the fact that the Haciendadoes were so generally 
non-resident and crowded together in the cap- 
ital, w T here a viceroyal " court " was maintained 
for their amusement. Administradores managed 
their estates for them. The clergy being resident 
and directed by the hierarchy, were thus more 
and more relied upon to sustain the demands of 
the royal will and also those of the aristocracy. 

No wonder that the church became paramount, 
and that misruled Mexico furnished at last such 
a fearful example before all men of the ignorance 
and misery to which a nation must sink when 
priests manipulate its politics, and then aim to 
provide for the perpetuity of this wretched con- 
dition by concordat relations with Rome. 

No Bible was permitted to the people ; it was 
jealously excluded. Education was as much a 
monopoly as the silver of their mines. But then, 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 239 

there was abundance of cathedrals and churches 
and monasteries and religious " orders." Every 
church was crowded with Virgin Marys, and 
altars, and shrines, and pictures, and relics, and 
martyrs 5 bones, while processions and holy 
places, pilgrimages and sacred wells abounded 
over the land, and any amount of fables and 
" lying wonders " were circulated to sustain their 
credit among the ignorant millions, 

The church calendar was swelled to an enor- 
mous extent by "Saints'" days, which had to be 
duly honored, and on which work was suspended, 
while God's holy Sabbath was violated and 
broken by shameless dissipation, by cock-fighting, 
bull-baiting and other Spanish crimes, in many 
of which the clergy themselves took prominent 
part and made money by betting upon the 
results ! 

The vast cathedral of Puebla alone is supposed 
to have a larger stock of these " Sacred Relics " 
of various kinds treasured up than could be col- 
lected from one half the Romish churches of the 



240 CORTES 

United States. And this was done at an im- 
mense outlay of the nation's wealth. Most of 
them are encased in silver and many are decorated 
with precious stones. It is something fearful 
to hear the attendant, as he exhibits them, one 
after another in their cabinets, describe in detail 
what " illustrious martyrs " they each belonged to, 
and what " miracles " of healing they have ac- 
complished already ! 

Romanism surfeited the nation with this sort 
of religion, " dead men's bones," pictures, images, 
dressed-up dolls and Latin masses without num- 
ber. More Romish than Rome itself in their 
fanatical Maryolatry, and so intolerant in their 
demand for reverence to their " Host," that they 
have murdered men in the public streets because 
they declined to kneel down in adoration before 
it when it passed by. 

But, the fruits of the whole system could be 
seen even around the doors of these magnificent 
cathedrals any day. Here and in the streets 
were constantly witnessed, in wretched men, 






CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 241 

women and children, the rags and filth and dis- 
ease which follow close on superstition, idleness 
and vice. Their poverty and micleanness were 
so hideous that the word " Leperos" (Leper) 
came into general use to designate them. Only 
in Spain itself could 3 r ou see such mental and 
physical degradation as this ! 

They decided to hide the Word of God from 
the nation, so as to perpetuate their power. 
How determinedly they "took away the key 
of knowledge " from the people, may be illus- 
trated by the fact that the writer has in his 
possession an old volume of theirs, containing 
their Catechism and Ritual printed about one 
hundred and fifty years ago in the Mexican 
language (at a time when there was no chance 
whatever of any Protestant calling attention to 
the mission), in which they deliberately left 
out the second commandment, while professing 
to give the ten — dividing one of the nine to 
make up the number ! Indeed, it is a fact, that 
the converts now living close to Evangelical 



242 CORTES 

Christianity in Mexico never heard oL or saw, 
the second commandment until the missionaries 
brought them the Bible and pointed out the 

-age, and the people have thus lea: 
they have been deceived and drawn by the 
priests of Rome into the fearful sin which Gc ;1 
has there prohibited under severe penalty. 

Of the clergy of Mexico, as a class, we need 
say but little. This has already been done 
one of themselves — a witness which they have 
not dared ; : :on:ro:;t. The Abba Domineek. 
Maximilian's confessor, and chaplain in chief 
of the French expeditionary forces, a:;er the 
Emperor's death was authorized to travel through 
Mexico, and ascertain and rep or: upon ;the 
ecclesiastical affairs of that e;;.:_;ry. A more 
fearful record against any clergy, speaking of 
them generally, and allowing foi in excep- 

tions, has not seen the light since the days of 
the Reformation, than this priest has given 
of Iiis brethren in Mexico. After reading it, 
and reflecting upon the cruel despotism which 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 243 

such nien sustained, no one need be surprised 
that as people in Mexico became enlightened, 
they fell away from the Romish Church, and, like 
the French, for similar reasons have rushed into 
infidelity, and given their vote and their co- 
operation to overthrow a church which the} r 
believed had proved such a curse to their country. 

No wonder, when their hour and opportunity 
came, that they secularized that immense church 
property, emptied the monasteries and nunneries, 
tore open and demolished the inquisitions, turned 
out all the monks and nuns and sisters of 
charity, exiled bishops and priests who refused 
to obey the laws, released education from cler- 
ical control, passed a civil marriage bill, and 
expelled every Jesuit from their country, and 
forbade their return — while, at the same time, 
they have thrown open the gates of the nation 
to the entrance of Protestant missionaries, and 
faithfully protect their right to remain and labor 
there ! 

Since the days of Henry VIII. no nation in 



244 CORTES. 

Christendom has brought the Papal Church to 
such a strict account for her conduct as the 
men of Mexico have done during the past few 
years. Their indignation was deep and terrible 
for the wrongs which they had endured at her 
hands, and when the hour of retribution came 
her few fanatical adherents were helpless to 
defend her from the judgments pronounced 
upon her by the Congress and people of Mexico, 
so they made thorough work of it and demol- 
ished the power of political Romanism forever 
in the land of the Aztecs. 

What would Cortes think could he revisit 
Mexico, or Madam Calderon say, were she to 
return to her ambassadorial position, and behold 
the contrast which 1880 presents to 1840 ! How 
wonderful is the whole subject, and how full 
of lessons are its facts to this and other nations! 
But space does not permit our doing it justice 
in these pages. 

Let it be borne in mind that there is more 
than Mexico herself to be considered in these 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 245 

surprising - revolutions. Every nation south of 
Mexico (save Brazil) speaks the saipe language 
that she does. Being the largest of them all, 
the nearest to our civilization and the most ad- 
vanced, she stands in the position of a leader, 
whose example the other fifteen nations are 
quietly following as they comprehend its nature 
and witness the rest and prosperity to which 
it is leading her. 

At the last numeration Mexico was found to 
contain 9,380,461, as population. The territo- 
rial extent was formerly much larger. But in 
1843, the Texan portion separated from Mexico 
and declared itself independent. The war be- 
tween the United States and Mexico, which 
followed in 1846, involved the cession to the 
United States of the whole country north of 
the Rio Grande and reduced the area of Mexico 
by one half. It now stands at about 776,280 
square miles. 

The population of Mexico, according to Prof. 
Schem, includes about 1,140,000 white persons, 



246 CORTES. 

(i. e. 40,000 Europeans, chiefly Spaniards, 300,- 
000 Creoles, 800,000 Chapetones, or persons of 
mixed descent, who claim to be white,) 1,150,- 
000 to 2,000,000 Mestizoes of mixed blood; 
all the rest of the population are the descend- 
ants of the Aztec, or conquered race. Up to 
the commencement of the present century it 
was the policy of the Spanish portion to hold 
on to all the power, and almost all the positions 
of trust and emolument in the country, both 
of Church and State, as well as to maintain their 
profits under the Hacienda system, and the 
mining industries of the nation. For this pur- 
pose laws were passed and policies pursued 
which the crown and Church required the vice- 
roys to sustain and execute. But the rude 
shocks given to the doctrines of the divine right 
of kings and old monopolies by the wars of 
the first Napoleon, and the consequent exten- 
sion of liberal views in Europe, as well as the 
rise and progress of the Federal Republic of 
the United States by their side, let in light 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 247 

on the constitutional rights of all men, and the 
immunities of freedom, which the middle classes 
and the oppressed Mexicans received with de- 
light. The " privileged classes," lay and clerical 
made desperate efforts to seal up the country 
against the introduction of these . hated views 
of human freedom. But the doom of these 
monopolies was hasting on, and no amount of san- 
guinary resistance could arrest its march. Spain 
was no longer feared, its tj^ranny was controlled, 
and its weakness manifest enough when its royal 
family was removed from power, and a foreigner 
placed upon its throne by Napoleon I. 

Voices " not loud but deep," soon began to 
be heard here and there in Mexico, calling for 
liberation, denouncing foreign rule, and demand- 
ing the expulsion of their Spanish masters. 
Monopolists became alarmed and tightened their 
grasp. But the voices grew louder, more fre- 
quent and more numerous, and despotism 
trembled. In 1808, the Creoles began to 
assert their rights and courted the aid of the 



248 CORTES. 

other mixed classes as against the Spanish aris- 
tocracy, toward whom a bitter feeling of hos- 
tility was spreading over the land. This hostility 
brought the native race to their aid, and from 
that hour Spanish domination in Mexico was 
doomed, and with that domination was to fall 
the political power of the priests of Rome ; and 
this to be at once followed by a stern demand 
on the part of the impoverished nation for a 
surrender to it of the real estate and immense 
wealth which they had unrighteously acquired, 
and which were not necessary to the legitimate 
objects of any church in an independent coun- 
try. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM. 

A T length in the morning of November 16th 

-^ ^ 1814, the standard of independence was 

publicly unfurled by Don Miguel Hidalgo in 

the town of Dolores, State of Guanaquata. This 

venerable man though a Curate of the Catholic 

Church resolved to liberate his countrymen from 

the dominion of Spain, and although he lost his 

own life in the effort, having been captured and 

executed by the church party, and the patriotic 

chiefs which gathered to his standard were like 

himself sacrificed, yet grateful Mexico celebrates 

that date as the birth day of her liberty and 

national life, and has placed his full length 

portrait in " the Halls of the Montezumas as the 

honored Martyr of her freedom. 

249 



250 COETES. 

Absolute separation from Spain was ac- 
complished in 1821. The republican element 
which had been organized was overborne by 
the party of the Creole Don Augustine Iturbide, 
who, by certain concessions to the clericals, in 
the proposal called "the plan of Ignala," had 
himself declared Emperor May 19th, 1822. But 
his high-handed measures soon developed a revo- 
lution which uuited the whole liberal party 
against him, including the celebrated General 
Santa Anna, then a professed republican, and 
Iturbide was forced to present his abdica- 
tion on the 19th of March, 1823, to the first 
Mexican Congress which had assembled. They 
allowed him to leave the country and proceed 
to Italy, granting him a pension of $25,000 per 
annum, under the express stipulation that at 
the risk of life he was never to return. Unfor- 
tunately for himself he disregarded his agreement 
and went back under a feigned name. He landed 
in the north of Mexico in the following July, 
but he was discovered and arrested by General 



# 

CONQUEST OF MEXCCO. 251 

Garza, at Sota la Marena, and was shot a few 
days afterwards. 

The pope made an effort to arrest the revo- 
lution so as, if possible, to save the life and 
power of his church, but he was too late. The 
nation would not listen to his claims, and events 
had to take their course. Fifty viceroys had 
governed Mexico from 1535 to 1810. They had 
ruled to please the king and the church, and had 
carried their power, thus far, by discouraging 
every attempt to extend even the rudiments of 
education to the native Mexicans. Of the whole 
fifty only one was an American, and he was a 
Peruvian Spaniard. But king and viceroy were 
both overthrown now, and the republican party 
resolved that the church must be the next to 
surrender, to take her heavy hand off the nation's 
life, and permit freedom and intelligence to 
become the heritage of all without distinction. 

This however, she peremptorily declined to 
concede. She had never consulted the will of 
the people, and was not going to do it now. Be- 



252 COKTES. 

sides she had enormous wealth and knew the 
price of the corrupt generals of the land, and 
thought she could rely on their ability to raise 
armies from among the fanatical and ignorant 
classes ; if that was not enough, she supposed 
she could obtain foreign interventions from 
the despots of Europe to help her cause. So 
she resolved to fight it out on those lines, appar- 
ently reckless at what cost of suffering and blood 
to the unfortunate country. Perhaps the lovers 
of freedom in any land never had a longer or 
more dreadful agony to endure to win constitu- 
tional freedom for their country than the repub- 
licans of Mexico passed through between 1823 
and 1869. Without wealth or credit or adequate 
resources of any kind, with traitors around them 
and among them, without sympathy in their 
struggle from any nation save the United States, 
while two powerful governments of Europe 
furnished men, munitions of war, and gold, to 
their bitter antagonists — misrepresented pur- 
posely among the nations, and cursed and ex- 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 255 

communicated by the Pontiff of Christendom as 
enemies of God and men — this handful of brave 
Mexicans, with the cry upon their lips for more 
than forty years, " Give me liberty or give me 
death!'' maintained the unequal conflict. As 
they fell their sons rushed forward to take their 
places, and the brave struggle went on. They 
felt that if they could only succeed freedom was 
worth all they had endured to win it. 

And they did win it ; worthily led at the close 
to the consummation by the honored man whom 
they regarded as " the Washington ' : of their 
country, Don Benito Juarez. For eight years 
this patriotic man united and directed the Liberal 
party of his country, He convinced them that 
a constitution, without concordant relations with 
Rome, was the only compact under which they 
could win their freedom and find real rest as a 
nation from the fearful perplexities which sur- 
rounded them. 

His steady hand was laid on the helm of the 
ship of state, and all the leaders gathered round 



256 COBTES. 

him in great confidence and daring, to aid in 
weathering the storm and in bringing her safe 
to port. But before this was accomplished, what 
change, what overthrow, what discouragements 
they had to endure ! How often the precious 
cause seemed almost lost. Leaders whom thej r 
rallied round and trusted, were bribed and intimi- 
dated, or overthrown, and others had to be 
sought and put in the front of the fearful con- 
flict. 

In illustration of how desperately their clerical 
enemies pressed them in this line, there may be 
here given the unexampled fact in the history of 
great struggles for freedom, that from the time 
when independence was proclaimed, 1821, to the 
death of Maximilian in 1867, a period of forty- 
six years, poor Mexico had fifty-one changes of 
government! Deducting seven years for the 
presidency of Juarez, and the residue shows 
that Mexico had, on the average, a change of 
government every nine months, during the thirty- 
nine years of the wonderful conflict. Every 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 257 

change involved a pronunciarniento, as they call 
it, usually accompanied by a new " plan," a con- 
flict or succession of them, in which the blood 
and treasure on both sides flowed freely, while 
the rest which followed was of short duration 
and the sanguinary struggle was soon renewed 
again. What a wonderful history it is when 
fully comprehended ! 

With Benito Juarez came at last the prospect 
of rest and peace and the rule of law. This 
great man was a pure Aztec Indian — not a drop 
of Spanish blood in his veins. He rose by his 
own merits from obscurity to become Chief 
Justice of Mexico. He was called upon by the 
Liberals to draft a free constitution, modeled 
upon that of the United States, but with more 
adequate precaution against the political power 
of the Catholic Church. He accomplished his 
task, abolished the slavery of his race, and 
made civil and religious freedom the heritage of 
all men in Mexico forever. With wonderful 
unanimity the Liberals of Mexico called him 



258 CORTES. 

to the presidency of their country, and gave 
him a free congress to make this liberty good 
against all its foes. " The Laws of Reform " 
were passed, and the president was empowered 
and required to carry out the disestablishment 
of the Romish Church, secularize the ecclesiastical 
property, and with the sales thereof meet the 
expenses of the conflict which the church had 
so long forced upon the nation, and also develop 
a system of education for the people. The coun- 
try bound up her wounds, and men through all 
her borders rejoiced that freedom and rest had 
come at last to poor, distracted Mexico. 

Alas no ! the enemies of that freedom were 
not going to allow the men of Mexico to gov- 
ern themselves under peaceful republican forms. 
This was not to be permitted if clerical des- 
potism could prevent it. So the Church sent 
her emissaries across the ocean to visit the 
reactionary courts of Catholic Europe, and seek 
some prince who could be induced to accept a 
crown, and come to Mexico to put down the 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 259 

republicanism of the people and establish a 
throne upon its ruins. Unfortunately for him- 
self, Maximilian, the Archduke of Austria, 
and brother of the reigning Emperor, allowed 
himself to be made the instrument of the clerical 
faction. He and his wife Carlotta (she the 
daughter of the king of the Belgians) accepted 
the dangerous office, and went to Rome to 
receive the Pope's blessing upon their enter- 
prise. Pius IX did all he could to give sanc- 
tion and influence to the new dynasty which 
his church had called into existence, as Emperor 
and Empress of Mexico. 

But the parties to this conspiracy against the 
freedom of the Mexican people and the Ameri- 
can continent well knew that Maximilian was 
not called as their sovereign by his new " sub- 
jects," and that he dare not land alone upon 
any part of their territories with such claims. 
It was therefore necessary to protect him, and 
to give him the assistance of an army which 
would enable him to force his rule upon the 



260 CORTES. 

unwilling Mexicans. This, too, was provided for 
by the traitors who undertook to engineer the 
enterprise. 

Aided by the influence of Eugenie, the French 
Empress, Napoleon III. consented to furnish the 
requisite troops, and Marshal Bazaine was or- 
dered to proceed with a French Legion to 
Mexico, and install Maximilian as Emperor of 
the country. President Juarez, in the name 
of the Mexican nation, protested before the 
world against this high-handed outrage and its 
flimsy pretext. Alas ! what could the Republi- 
cans do against the well-armed and disciplined 
forces of the French Emperor. Bazaine proved 
himself a worthy successor of Cortes. Once more 
the Mexican nation was slaughtered into sub- 
mission, and Te Deums were celebrated in the 
cathedrals of Mexico over the result ! Maxi- 
milian arrived June 16th, 1864. 

The Republican President making the best 
fight he could, had to retire before the superioi 
force of the French arms. But he maintained 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 263 

his government, though often holding merely the 
ground he and his cabinet stood upon, as they 
were driven from place to place. Still he never 
could be compelled to quit his country; he fought 
on with what forces gathered to him, and main- 
tained the unequal conflict, until at length he 
captured Maximilian on the 14th of Ma}-, 1867, 
and dashed the false " empire ' ! to pieces "like 
a potter's vessel ! " 

But, long before this result was reached, the 
clerical party which had brought Maximilian to 
Mexico to do their will, had discovered that he 
was not the man to do all the work laid out 
for him. He had not been many months in the 
country before they discovered this, and they 
remonstrated with him. The Pope sent his 
nuncio in Oct. 1864, and in Dec. 8th of the 
same year, issued his celebrated " Syllabus " 
against Republicanism and modern civilization, 
with special application to Mexico. But Maxi- 
milian was firm, and informed them all that the 
doctrines of that Syllabus he would not attempt 



264 CORTES. 

to carry out. If he reigned in Mexico it should 

be as a constitutional sovereign, and that he had 
ascertained already that what had been done, 
even in regard to church property, was so mani- 
festly the result of the pojmlar will, that he could 
not undertake to reverse it, or to effect the 
innumerable titles that had been created by the 
sales of such of the ecclesiastical properties as 
had been alread3 r disposed of. 

So the clericals had to make the best of their 
man, and the situation, but resolved to checkmate 
him as far as possible for their purposes, and so 
deeply did they involve him that when his hour 
of trial came, it was found impracticable to ex- 
tend him any mercy. The cruel measures 
adopted toward the Republicans to crush them, 
especially by the agencj^ of " The Black Decree " 
passed Oct. 3d, 1865, and carried out by Maxi- 
milian's commander in chief (after Bazaine had 
given up the atrocious work) — a man by the name 
of Marquez, whom men in Mexico regarded as a 
monster of cruelty, was the most fearful measure 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 265 

ever adopted in modern warfare. It suspended 
the laws of war, treated the Republicans as 
brigands, and allowed no appeal and no mercy, 
with no record of the transaction, except that of 
the execution ! 

But a fearful record it was to those most con- 
cerned, when eighteen months after, it fell into 
the hands of the victorious Republicans and they 
then learned how many of the best and noblest 
of their brothers had been ruthlessly sacrificed 
for their devotion to their country's cause ! 

The probabilitjr is that the French interven- 
tion and the landing of Maximilian would never 
have taken place but for the civil war which 
broke out in this country. For years the des- 
potic party in Mexico had feared to awaken 
the sensibilities of the United States in regard 
to the maintenance of the " Monroe doctrine," 
of non-interference by European powers in the 
affairs of nations on this side of the Atlantic. 
But when our flag was fired on at Fort Sumter, 
and we were evidently committed to a war of 



266 cohtes. 

long duration, and would have all that we could 
attend to at home, they thought their hour was 
come and they hastened their preparations and 
consummated their plans while our hands were 
tied. 

The American Government and people heard 
with indignation what had been done, but the 
noise and smoke of our own civil conflict pre- 
vented us observing, as we might otherwise have 
done, the deeper sufferings of the Republicans 
in the adjoining nation. Their hunted Presi- 
dent near our border on the Rio Grande, tried 
to keep Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward fully in- 
formed of wrongs and agony through which 
his nation was passing, and implored whatever 
aid we could give them. He was well repre- 
sented at Washington by his faithful ambassador, 
Matias Romero. 

But in response to the frequent and earnest 
appeals of the devoted and anxious President, 
Mr Lincoln and his Secretary of State could 
only give their sympathy and counsel patience. 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO, 267 

Knowing what he did, Mr. Lincoln would 
say no more. He was well aware that France 
was only waiting a pretext to recognize the 
Southern Confederacy and break the blockade 
— that Napoleon was straining diplomacy to in- 
duce England to join him in doing so — and 
that England was then under a powerful 
pressure — her artizans in Lancashire were 
starving for want of the cotton which the break- 
ing of the blockade would surely bring them. 
He also knew that some of the members 
of the English Cabinet were only too willing 
to yield to Napoleon's persuasion, and that the 
aristocratic class was generally at that time in 
favor of increasing the troubles and perplexi- 
ties of our government by this measure. 

So Mexico must still suffer on, and wait 
until the only nation on the earth which had 
the heart to help her could do so, for at pres- 
ent that nation's best blood was flowing in the 
fearful struggle to conquer the greatest rebel- 
lion known to history, and to maintain invio- 



268 CORTES. 

late the blessings of freedom over her own wide 
territory. In these dark and dreadful days, when 
Liberty trembled, as her brave sons struggled 
with discouragement and defeat and the agony 
of hope deferred, and when tens of thousands 
of them lay dead on Southern battle-fields, the 
Pope of Rome was watching the conflict and 
awaiting his hour. He saw that France would 
not move alone. And finding that the men of 
Lancashire (who appreciated the merits of our 
struggle better than their aristocracy did) sternly 
refused to be led by the bribe of the slaveholder's 
cotton and the full employment it would give 
them, and that they were holding crowded public 
meetings to declare to their government and be- 
fore the people of England, that they preferred to 
wait, and live on one meal a day if necessary, 
until the free North should have her fair oppor- 
tunity to put down human slavery forever — he 
saw how utterly hopeless it was to wait till 
England should join France in the cause which 
he preferred. 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 269 

Unfortunately for his doctrine of Infallibility, 
he then resolved upon one of the greatest mis- 
takes of his life. He did not want the North to 
be victorious, and he did desire that the Repub- 
licans of Mexico should be defeated. He also 
imagined that he had the power to precipitate 
matters bj r aiding the slaveholders rebellion with 
all the influence at his command. Hitherto the 
nations of Europe had obsequiously yielded to his 
expressed will and followed his leading, so in his 
self-confidence he dreamed not of failure. But 
he had now to discover before all Christendom, 
that the sorcery which had deceived the nations 
for a thousand years was broken, and to learn by 
bitter experience, how puerile and impotent a 
thing the Papacy had become, when, in its des- 
peration, it undertook to array itself against the 
civil and religious freedom of the Nineteenth 
Century! Accordingly, little imagining the hu- 
miliation in store for him and his claims, one day, 
after the report of some Southern victories, he 
deemed that his hour had come. So, stepping out 



270 COETES. 

before all Europe, and in high assumption, he 
" Recognized the Southern Confederacy,'' and ad- 
dressed Jefferson Davis, in a grandiloquent com- 
munication, as the founder of a great nation ! 

The Pope looked around, expecting to find the 
Catholic States of the Continent hurrying up to 
sustain him in his bombastic act of "Recognition." 
But to his horror he stood alone, none of them 
had moved, not one of them was with him 
— not even France, or Napoleon, " the eldest 
son of the Church!" He was left "alone in 
his glory," such "glory " as it is — to be forever 
remembered by the free citizens of the United 
States and of Mexico as the only "Power" 
in all Europe who had the despotic audacity, 
in their days of sorrow and suffering, to "pro- 
nounce " against Liberty and in favor of rebel- 
lion and civil and religious slavery ! 

In view of the vital interests involved, to 
Constitutional Government, as well as to Re- 
publican and Evangelical Freedom, this move 
of the Pope was perhaps the most important 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 271 

political act of any of the Pontiffs. But it 
seemed to exhaust the patience of the Almighty, 
and to lead to the resolution that it should 
be the last, as well. How soon after this the 
Pope ceased to be a " Power," and his Tem- 
poral Sovereignty was in the dust, is well known. 
How frankly and fearlessly have European 
Powers — Italy, Germany, France and Belgium 
especially — expostulated with him and his 
bishops since that day! There set in immedi- 
ately an amazing reaction against any interference 
on his part with state policy, and public men 
began to wonder that they could have been so 
long deceived by the political assumptions of 
the Papacy. How significant of this altered 
condition of the public mind was the act of 
the Powers of Europe afterwards, when they 
met at the Berlin Congress to settle the policy 
of the nations as to civil and religious matters, 
while Czar and Sultan were invited, the Pope 
was left outside, and his protesting Syllabus 
treated with quiet contempt! 



272 CORTES. 

The wrongs of Mexico were avenged, not only 
when that Intervention, which he blessed and 
espoused, was dashed to pieces like a potter's 
vessel, but also when he was given to understand 
that there must be no repetition of this papal 
despotism, as no nation on either side of the At- 
lantic would henceforth tolerate his interference 
with either their methods of government or 
their public life ! 

The act of Pope Pius IX. was a worthy closing 
up of the whole clerical conspiracy, and of the 
fanatical and cruel efforts put forth by French 
Imperialism and Jesuit intrigue to erect a barrier 
on the Bio Grande, beyond which our repub- 
lican creed and our evangelical faith should not 
pass to illuminate and save the nations south 
of that line, so long sitting in darkness and in 
the shadow of death. But on the immediate 
issue of the existing double conflict, there hung 
the two great questions of the abolition of the 
"sum of all villainies," for the five millions of 
our own slaves, and the emancipation of an 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 273 

equal number of millions held for three hundred 
years in degraded peonage, who had to be equally 
rescued and elevated into the dignity of free- 
men of liberated Mexico. In the pause that 
followed the Pope's act, it was felt by the 
thoughtful men on each side, in both of these 
agonized nations, that the decision must now 
be rendered by Him to whom the appeal was 
made, when the gage of battle was flung down 
— the Lord God of Hosts himself. Man had 
done all that man could do, and now the Al- 
mighty was to intervene in both of these con- 
flicts. He did so, and very thoroughly too. 
But the cause which he sustained and " recog- 
nized," was neither the Southern Confederacy, 
on this side of the Rio Grande, nor the Maxi- 
milian Empire on the other. When his blessed 
hour had come how mighty and decided were 
his movements ! 

In rapid succession the lightning messengers 
flashed the news over the world — " Lee has 
surrendered to Grant ! ' " The armies of the 



*> 



274 CORTES. 

South are prisoners of war ! " " Richmond is 
captured ! " " The Confederacy has collapsed ! " 
And close behind came the hour of mercy for 
poor agonized Mexico. Minister Romero com- 
municated the welcome -news to President Juarez, 
and the hopes of the Liberals of Mexico rose 
at once. 

Secretarjr Seward now felt himself free to utter 
those plain words, which the government at 
Washington had so long desired to address to 
the French Emperor, concerning the feelings 
with which the people of this land regarded the 
deliberate violation of the " Monroe Doctrine " 
in the occupation of Mexico by his troops, and 
very candidly informed him that the evacuation 
of Mexico was indispensable to the preservation 
of friendly relations with this country. Mean- 
while, the army and navy took up certain posi- 
tions — General Sherman visited the Gulf, and 
the reply of Na.poleon was quietly awaited. 
Intelligence of Mr. Seward's notes quickly 
reached Mexico and struck terror into the souls 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 275 

of the imperial party. The Empress Carlotta 
saw the clanger, and hurried off to Paris and 
sought an interview with Napoleon. Aided by 
Eugenie, she implored the Emperor to disre- 
gard the notes of Mr. Seward, and not to with- 
draw his troops, as that would involve her 
husband's ruin. But Napoleon well knew that 
the Intervention had become unpopular with 
the French people, that it was attacked both b}~ 
Parliament and press, while his minister Rouher 
faltered in his defence of it. He also knew it 
was already a heavy item of expense on the 
finances of the nation— and that perseverance 
in the course upon which he had entered, to 
please the Pope and the church, would invite a 
rupture with the United States at once, which 
would make him so unpopular at home that the 
loss of crown and kingdom might be the pen- 
alty. 

So he decided to withdraw, and if Maximilian 
would not follow his example he must leave 
him to his fate. When his decision was made 



276 CORTES. 

known to the Empress Carlotta, and she saw 
the ruin of the Intervention and its object, and 
her husband's danger, her excited mind gave way. 
She was removed to Miramar (her happy home 
ere the Church party of Mexico lured her from 
it to serve their wicked purposes) and there 
she has remained ever since, a maniac ! Bazaine 
executed his orders and conducted the French 
forces out of Mexico, treating Maximilian with 
rudeness and discourtesy. Happy had it been 
for the deserted " Emperor " had he too left 
the country. But here again the clerical party 
proved his evil genius. Detesting Napoleon and 
Seward alike now, they flattered Maximilian 
into the hope that the Austrian troops which 
had accompanied him and remained, along with 
such fanatics as they could collect, would be 
able to hold their own against the Republican 
army until a volunteer force could be raised in 
Austria to come to their aid. The effort was 
made, Mr. Lincoln heard of it, but the man 
who had talked so plainly to Napoleon, was 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO, 277 

not likely to be less decided with Francis Joseph. 
So Mr. Seward was directed at once to inform 
the Emperor of Austria that this would be re- 
garded as an unfriendly act, and that, on the 
hay when the first party of Austrian volunteers 
left Vienna for Mexico, the American Minister 
would demand his passports. 

Francis Joseph knew what this involved, and 
despite the pressure of the Pontiff and of the 
church, the enlistment was suspended and not 
a volunteer left Austria. Nor had a soldier to 
cross from the United States into Mexico. It 
was left for the people of Mexico to decide their 
own destiny, and to deal as they saw fit with 
the invaders of their country which still remained 
with Maximilian, and with those of their own 
race who had cast in their lot wdth the new 
Empire and were willing to fight for it. On 
reflection Maximilian despaired of success with 
such resources, and he actually left the capital 
and went down to Orizaba, within six hours 
by rail of Vera Cruz, with the intention of leav- 



278 CORTES. 

ing the country forever. Before he could do 
so, however, the Church party had followed him 
by a deputation, who assured him that they were 
raising a force and had collected means (reputed 
at 30,000 men and |15,000,000) and that if he 
would only return and renew the struggle the 
Empire could be soon established, as adhesions 
to it " had begun to flow in from all directions," 
and victory was sure. How false all this was, 
and how it lured him to his ruin, the unfortunate 
Archduke was to learn ere long. He returned, 
to carry out the savage programme prepared 
for him under Marquez, and to pay the penalty 
with his life under the walls of Queretaro. 



CHAPTER V- 

VICTORY AND NEW LIFE. 

AS soon as President Juarez heard of the 
order for the evacuation of Mexico by the 
French, he took up his line of march for the 
capital, from which he had been driven three 
years previously. His cabinet, who had so faith- 
fully clung to him through all these dark days 
of sorrow, accompanied their patriotic and de- 
voted chief. He was every where received 
by the people with the honor and love which 
were his due. He had now to organize and 
arm as best he could the adherents which flocked 
to him, and make them up into armies for ser- 
vice in different parts of the country, for the 

final struggle with his unscrupulous foe Marquez. 

279 



280 COKTES. 

Great cities had to be taken, armies in the field 
beaten, and the seaboard reached, in order to 
obtain revenues from the Custom Houses and the 
requisite supplies. 

Marquez remained in the capital, and sent 
Miramon and Mejia with the Emperor toward 
Queretaro, to meet the army of the President 
as he came from the north-west, having Esco- 
bedo as his General in Chief. But our space 
forbids more detail. 

The decisive blow was struck on the 13th 
of May 1867, and the Republican army that 
night surrounded the convent in which the 
Emperor had his head quarters. Early the next 
morning, Lopez, one of Maximilian's own colonels, 
surrendered the position and the Emperor to 
Escobedo. At once President Juarez, who had 
fixed temporarily his seat of government at San 
Luis (some twelve hours distant from Queretaro) 
was communicated with. Trial by Court Martial 
was arranged for, the government granting Maxi- 
milian opportunity to choose his counsel, and 




QUEKETAKO. 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 283 

time to prepare his defence. He selected one of 
the fathers of the Mexican bar, Riva Palacios, 
who chose his junior; and safe conduct being 
granted by the Republicans, they proceeded at 
once to Queretaro to prepare such defence as 
could be made for their client. The whole pro- 
ceeding was afterwards given to the world in a 
volume, which a gentleman has translated into 
the English language and made accessible to those 
who desire to know the facts in detail. 

All the usual forms were patiently observed 
on this sad occasion. Maximilian's lengthened 
defence and those of his advocates and the evi- 
dence in his favor were listened to and considered. 
But the case for the prosecution was too strong 
to be answered. It chiefly rested on the following 
facts. First. That he, a foreigner, had invaded 
their country at the head of a foreign army, 
stricken down the chosen government of the 
Mexican people, violently abolished their constitu- 
tion and on the ruins of their Republic had 
established an empire by force of arms. That he 



284 CORTES. 

had done all this, notwithstanding President 
Juarez had in advance of his leaving Europe, sent 
two of the leading citizens of Mexico to warn 
the Archduke of the falsity of the representations 
which the church party Were then making to him, 
and also, the danger which he would incur should 
he come to Mexico for such purpose, the penalty 
named in the article of the constitution on this 
subject being pointed out to him by those gentle- 
men. Second. It was argued that his designation 
by the Pontiff had, in the estimation of some 
people, convej^ed a certain indelibility to his 
claim to be Emperor of Mexico even though 
uncalled b} r its citizens, and that that act of 
the Pope made it the duty of the Catholic con- 
science to'sustain those claims, releasing them from 
the oath of allegiance which they might have taken 
to their own chosen constitution and government, 
and putting upon all such the obligation to obey 
and sustain the person whom the Pope, as the 
superior of all governments, had set up in the 
name of Almighty God. That therefore, while 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 285 

Maximilian lived, there could exist in such 
minds no other legal government in Mexico 
which could bind the Catholic conscience and con- 
sequently that his death alone (having no heir to 
whom to transmit his "rights") could wipe out his 
claims and allow a legal government to follow the 
one of which he was the head, and so restore legal- 
ity and order to the land. 

Third. His own "Black Decree" of October 
3rd, issued to terrorize the nation into submission 
to the Empire, and which had sent such a list of 
the bravest and best of the citizens of Mexico 
(including the governor of Queretaro, where this 
trial was held) to cruel deaths, where no mercy 
was shown — but men were promptly executed 
merely for the " crime" of being Republicans ! 

On these counts the Archduke was found 
guilty and condemned to die. His sentence was 
confirmed by the President with sorrow, but 
under a sense of supreme duty to his country, as 
was also that of Maximilian's Generals Miramoii 
and Mejia. 



286 COBTES. 

But these were the only death penalties signed 
by the gentle hearted president, notwithstand- 
ing the cruel treason of many others now in 
his power. The sentence on Maximilian and 
his two Generals (both of them traitors to their 
country, having violated their oath, and deserted 
the Republican Army for the church and the Em- 
pire) was carried out on the 19th of June 1867 
— one month and five days after their capture. 

Maximilian took his stand at the end having 
Miramon and Mejia on his right hand. It is con- 
sidered that up to the day before his death, 
he would not believe that the Republican Govern- 
ment would take his life — that some way of 
escape would open to him — they dare not shed 
"royal blood" like his. And a few of the church 
party also timidly ventured to talk of the guilt 
of slaying the Lord's Anointed. But 

they soon learned that their fellow citizens would 
tolerate no Papal Toryism of that sort in his 
behalf. 

Queretaro is about one hundred and sixty 



CONQUEST OP MEXICO. 289 

miles from the capital, which was at this time 
besieged by General Porferio Diaz, and defended 
by Marquezo The sufferings of the inhabitants 
were very great, and were now prolonged and 
intensified by the heartless conduct of Maxi- 
milian's Commander in Chief. Though well- 
knowing that Maximilian and his army were 
captured, Marquez continued to hold out, and 
even to issue false bulletins of battles and 
victories which never took place, and this he 
continued even after he knew that the Em- 
peror had been executed. Meanwhile he con- 
tinued his extortions on the more wealthy of 
the people for his private advantage, until, 
early one morning, it was discovered that he 
had secretly fled, where, no one knew, nor lias 
his face ever since been seen within his native 
land. His flight was the signal for a general 
stampede of the leaders of the church party, 
including some of the bishops and clergy, fear- 
ing the well-deserved wrath of the triumphant 
Republicans. 



290 CORTES. 

The reception of President Juarez and his 
Cabinet, on their arrival in the city of Mexico, 
was so enthusiastic and brilliant, that the wear)- 
party of patriotic statesmen could then realize 
how all their anxieties and toils were appreci- 
ated by a grateful people, who loved and hon- 
ored them for their faithfulness to the high 
trust reposed in them, during those three dark 
and dreadful years, when despotism, sustained 
by foreign bayonets, aimed to strangle the liber- 
ties of their country. The magnanimity of the 
government was shown in allowing all their 
Austrian prisoners to leave Mexico unharmed, 
and also in generously permitting those who 
were compromised, to return to their country 
and their homes. The body of Maximilian 
(which had been embalmed in view of this con- 
tingency) was delivered up to the Austrian 
Admiral, who had been sent to claim it, as 
soon as his Emperor saw fit to abandon his 
disrespectful mode of asking for it, and was 
willing to address the Mexican government in 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 291 

a becoming manner upon the subject. Senor 
Lerdo, the Secretary of State, then ordered it 
to be delivered to the Admiral. 

The Congress of the Republic passed such 
measures as were required to give full effect 
to the " Laws of Reform.'' The Church of 
Rome was fully separated from the State, and 
disestablished , all monasteries and nunneries 
were emptied and sold, or utilized as government 
offices. The Inquisition and other ecclesiastical 
property, not needed for religious services, were 
cut up into lots to suit purchasers and dis- 
posed of. And, with the proceeds, the govern- 
ment was authorized to pay the expenses of 
the war which the Church had forced upon the 
nation. 

Nor did the Congress relax its efforts until 
it had relieved the Republic of the presence 
of all monks and nuns and Sisters of Charity, and 
then it expelled the Jesuits. The writer, who 
was present and saw this done, upon asking why 
Mexican statesmen had made such thorough work 



292 CORTES. 

in this regard, was answered, that it was not 
because the people of Mexico were opposed to 
religion, but because their bitter experience had 
led them to believe that these various orders and 
confraternities were not religious as to the lead- 
ing object of their existence ; that they were 
in the service of a foreign power, and were cov- 
ertly working in its interests ; and that, having 
.bought their freedom at such a fearful price of 
blood and treasure, the people were resolved 
that the secret emissaries of the foreign despot, 
at whose hands they had suffered so much, should 
not have further opportunity to tamper with 
their political freedom and their social life. The 
only clergy they would have were the regular 
clergy, and even these must henceforth keep their 
hands out of politics and away from the public 
treasury. A sufficient number of churches for 
the wants of existing congregations, was made 
over to them, in the sense of a loan from the 
nation — but they could not be sold or rented, 
or mortgaged by the priesthood in whose hands 



COXQUEST OF MEXICO. 293 

they were placed. All the rest were secularized 
and the proceeds applied as we have indicated. 

The whole land now began to settle down 
under the reign of law and order ; full protection 
was guaranteed to civil and religious freedom 
for all men beneath the Mexican flag — natives 
and foreigners alike. God had opened the nation, 
which had been so hermetically sealed for nearly 
three hundred and fifty years, by a series of most 
wonderful providences, and now the Bible and 
the missionary were welcome to enter and help 
to give permanency and blessing to the freedom 
already won, with none to molest or make them 
afraid. 

It was now discovered that the Holy Scriptures, 
which had been scattered in the track of the 
American army more than twenty years before, 
when General Scott entered the country, had 
not been scattered in vain. Though many of 
them, when our flag left the land, had been 
openly burnt in the public plazas — yet hundreds 
of them were never surrendered, but were read 



294 CORTES. 

and talked over by little groups here and there, 
who, during those years, had met in secret for the 
humble service. Thus, good seed had been sown 
for freedom and evangelical Christianity, and such 
people, now at last at liberty to read and 
avow their cherished sentiments, were the most 
forward to welcome the missionaries when they 
entered their country. 

It is about ten years since the first of 
the eight denominations now working in Mexico 
entered that field. Two years may be deducted 
for preparation — acquiring the language and get- 
ting matters ready for their work — but such has 
been the good hand of God upon them, and the 
spirit of candor with which they have been 
listened to by the people, that already these 
missions are able to report the following aggre- 
gate of results : 

Foreign Missionaries, male and female, 48 

Native Mexican Preachers, 102 

Other Native Agents, Teachers, Colporteurs, etc., 140 

Evangelical Congregations, 134 



CONQUEST OP MEXICO. 295 

Regular attendance on worship, about, 15, 

Scholars, day and Sunday-school, over, 

nans, male and female, 130 

Theological students, in training for the ministry 36 

Seven Evangelical periodicals, issuing copies yearly, 
Pages of religious literature issued from the seven mission 
presses, during the past year, nearly, 4j>. 

Value of mission property, churches, parsonages, print- 
ing establishments, schools, etc, r. 
Yearly expenditure of the missions at present, 5115, 000 
Baised by the Mexican congregations for self support 

yearly, about, $8,000 



These items are constantly on tire increase 
from the Growth of the missions. The converts 
manifest a steadiness and patience under perse- 
cution, and a love for the means of grace, that 
would do honor to any mission. The press is 
a very potent auxiliary in the extension of the 
work, and its issues are constantly reaching 
thousands bevond those who are regular atten- 
dants on the religious services of the different 
missions. It is due here to state, and it is done 
with deep gratitude, that, though the missions es- 
tablished in Mexico are missions of the American 



296 CORTES. 

churches, yet the Religious Tract Society of 
London has extended to their mission presses a 
most generous liberality in frequent gifts of 
money, paper, woodcuts, etc., greatly cheering the 
faithful missionaries in their difficult but success- 
ful operations. The standing and extent of the 
work in Mexico to-day could not have been what 
it is, had it not been for the noble generosity of 
those gentlemen who direct the liberality of that 
honored society in London. May God bless 
them for the help and sympathy which they have 
rendered in the elevation of poor Mexico from 
her long and cruel degradation ! 

Probably no invading foot will ever again 
disturb the rest and peace which has come at 
last to Mexico. If her free sons learn that " fear 
of the Lord " which is being taught them from 
the Holy Scriptures, now so extensively circu- 
lated over the land, " no weapon formed against 
them can prosper." In their efforts to diffuse 
the blessings of education to all their country- 
men, they seem to realize in some measure, the 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 297 

value of that divine word, which says, " Wisdom 
and knowledge shall be the stability of thy 
times, and strength of salvation." (lsa. xxxiii. 6.) 
That " fear of the Lord " is to them " a treasure " 
more valuable than the riches dug from their 
silver mountains, and if, as we hope, it shall 
become combined with the " wisdom and knowl- 
edge " now available in their " times," it will 
give their new-found freedom a "stability " that 
will dispense with the weapons which they have 
hitherto so universally worn, and they may pro- 
ceed to " beat their swords into ploughshares, and 
their spears into pruning-hooks — and learn war 
no more." " God will be their defense, and " — 
not Pontiff or Archduke, but — "the Holy One 
of Israel will be their King." Heaven has 
blessed their country with mercies so many 
and so valuable, in climate, production and 
abundance, that they have the great opportunity 
to realize, above most nations which God has 
made, if they seek and retain his friendship, 
that wealth of meaning in his word where he 



298 CORTES. 

promises that, " All nations shaH call you blessed : 
for you shall be a delightsome land, saith the 
Lord of Hosts." (Mai iii. 12.) 

Already, unexampled prosperity is being de- 
veloped over Mexico. Telegraphs are extending 
their connections, systems of railroads in every 
direction are being built, harbors opened and 
improved, and steamship lines laid on. Mexican 
revenues never were so large as they have now 
become. Her credit is higher than ever before, 
and the outside world, which her government 
has so candidly invited to enter and aid in 
this great development, are sending in their 
scientific men, their skilled labor and their 
capital, to do their part in lifting Mexico from 
her prostration and wretchedness, into a high 
position among the free and happy nations of 
the earth. 

THE END. 




CONGAS 







